Friday, February 24 2006 19:09 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Human rights activists today (Feb 24 2006) hailed the convictions in the high-profile Best Bakery case, saying the verdict in the re-trial has vindicated their standpoint that Gujarat government had interfered with the probe, even as the Defence team planned to file an appeal.

"The verdict is a complete vindication of the Supreme Court judgement ordering the trial. The entire process of the re-trial was as every trial should be. It was thorough, transparent, probing and zealous," rights activist Teesta Seetalvad told sources here.

She said the re-trial, held outside the state on orders of the Supreme Court, has ensured probity and transparency as only seven of the total of 75 witnesses turned hostile as against 68 of the total 74 when the original trial was held in Gujarat.

"The chargesheet was the same, the evidence was the same, the only difference is that here a thorough prosecution was doing its job. There the state of Gujarat was the prosecution and it was trying to subvert the trial," Seetalvad, who had been waging a prolonged battle to bring the accused to justice, told sources.

However, the defence team was not happy with the sessions court verdict, awarding life imprisonment to nine of the 17 people charged with torching the Best Bakery in Vadodara during the post-Godhra riots killing 14 people, and said they would appeal against the verdict.

"We shall file an appeal the moment we get a certified copy of the judgement and in that we will make the submission as to why the judgement should be disbelieved or rejected," defence lawyer Adhik Shirodkar said.