18 April 2004	Sunday	27 Safar 1425

NEW DELHI: When India's Supreme Court ordered that the trial of a controversial murder case be moved outside western Gujarat on Monday, it was the first time since an anti-Muslim pogrom swept the state two years ago that the victims could begin to hope for real justice.

"Ultimately, the Supreme Court had to step in and do what the government failed to do," Y P Chibbar, human rights activist and leader of the influential rights group People's Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), told IPS in an interview.

What has come to be known as the Best Bakery murder case - in which 21 people have been placed under trial for the slaying of a dozen people - had become symbolic of the serious miscarriage of justice in Gujarat.

Critics add that the injustice was made worse by the fact that a lower court in Vadodara city acquitted the accused on the grounds of insufficient evidence in June 2003.

Sensing the partisan nature of the justice system in Gujarat, India's Supreme Court declared in October that it would monitor appeals made in the Gujarat High Court by the main witness, Zahira Sheikh, whose family owned Best Bakery.

Sheikh was among those who managed to save themselves when mobs set Best Bakery ablaze.

She saw her sister, uncle, three cousins and seven others die in one of the numerous attacks carried out by Hindu mobs. The mobs were carrying out revenge for the burning of a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, an incident that left 59 passengers dead near the Godhra railway station on Feb 27, 2002.

She told the 'Indian Express' newspaper that her family was under constant threat and that she was compelled to change her original statements at the Vadodara court.

It was then that the Mumbai-based rights activist and leader of the rights group Citizens for Justice and Peace Teesta Setalvad stepped in to approach the Supreme Court for retrial outside Gujarat state, on Sheikh's behalf. The trial will now proceed in neighbouring Maharashtra state.

"The Supreme Court order transferring the case outside Gujarat will bring hope to the victims of the riots and send out the right signal to all those who are involved with the trials of other Gujarat riot cases," said Setalvad, who has been working to get justice for the survivors of the pogrom in which at least 2,000 people perished.

For all the deaths and numerous cases of rapes and arson in Gujarat, which saw India's worst communal violence in decades, only 12 persons have so far been tried and convicted.

Critics say this is due mainly to intimidation by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) or World Hindu Forum, which is closely affiliated to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP rules Gujarat and leads the national coalition at the centre.

While ordering retrial in Maharashtra state, the Supreme Court censured the Gujarat High Court for being "a silent spectator, mute to the manipulations" and being "indifferent to sacrilege being committed to justice".

Setalvad, who also edits the well-known monthly 'Communalism Combat', said she and her group would be overseeing the progress of some of the more prominent cases related to the Gujarat pogrom, including what are known as the Gulburg Society massacre and the Sardarpura massacre.

"We also have cases pending before the Supreme Court relating to hate speeches made by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi," she said.-Dawn/The InterPress News Service.