Vadodara: The 21 accused in the Best Bakery case have been asked to appear before the court in Vadodara for serving the arrest warrants issued to them by Gujarat High Court on an amended criminal petition filed by the state government, police commissioner S K Sinha said on October 8.

The accused were earlier acquitted by the fast track court in Vadodara on June 27, after which the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and Zahira – a key witness in the case, filed petition before the Supreme Court for retrial of the case outside the state.

Zahira had alleged that she was threatened of dire consequences if she spoke against the accused in the case.

Taking cognisance of this, the Supreme Court had summoned Gujarat chief secretary P K Laheri and director general of police (DGP) K Chakraborty to appear before it and later asked them to file an amended plea in the high court.

The high court has directed that all accused be re-arrested and released on bail after obtaining a surety of Rs 10,000 from each of the accused in the case.

Sinha said the summons have been served and within two days they would appear before the court.

The Vadodara police commissionerate has to send a report to the high court before November 15 in this regard and the case is to come up for hearing on December 1, Sinha said.

Meanwhile, security provided to five of the six eye witnesses in the case had to be withdrawn after their complaints of infringement of privacy, police said.

However, security provided to Yasminbanu, wife of Nafitulla and her sister-in-law Zahira would continue, he added.

PTI