Vadodara: The senior officials of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), who arrived in Vadodara on July 8 morning to examine all documents pertaining to the Best Bakery case and the judgement awarded by a fast track court, held a closed door meeting with city police commissioner Sudhir Sinha.

The meeting lasted for almost an hour, according to P G J Nampoothiri, the special rapporteur for the commission in Gujarat, who is accompanying Bhari Hoake, registrar of law and Sudhir Chaudhary, deputy inspector general (DIG) investigations, the NHRC team members from New Delhi.

Nampoothiri said the team, however, has no plans to visit the Best Bakery premises located in Hanuman Tekri area, where 12 persons were burnt alive in the bakery and two went missing on March 1, 2002 during the bandh call in the post-Godhra communal riots.

On June 27, a fast track court had acquitted 21 accused in this case due to lack of evidence, mainly due to witnesses turning hostile.

The NHRC members are presently conducting a meeting with district and sessions judge J C Upadhyay at the court. They are also likely to meet senior police officials during the day long visit.

The acquittal of the accused in the bakery carnage has generated a lot of heat, with NHRC chairman A S Anand terming it as "miscarriage of justice", even as the key witness Zahira Sheikh, who had turned hostile during the trial, stating in Mumbai on July 7 that she had been "threatened", demanded re- opening of the case in a higher court outside Gujarat.

PTI