Two Best Bakery accused arrested for Ajmer Sharif blast

The Times of India
TNN | May 5, 2013, 03.07 AM IST

VADODARA: Two people accused in the Best Bakery case of 2002 and also wanted in the 2007 Ajmer Sharif blast case were nabbed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the city police in a joint operation near the city on Friday night. With the fresh arrests, four people from the city—all accused in the Best Bakery case—have been arrested for the blast.

Jayanti Gohil and his son Ramesh Gohil had been hiding in Kashipur village of Waghodiya taluka. The NIA had been on their trail for some time now and cops of the agency had been camping in Vadodara for the past few days.

Vadodara police commissioner Satish Sharma said that the accused had been arrested and tried by a local court for the Best Bakery case but they had been absconding after the Supreme Court ordered a retrial. Those on the run after the retrial was ordered included Jayanti, Ramesh, Mafat Gohil and Harshad Solanki.

Fourteen people were killed by a mob on March 1, 2002 in the Best Bakery case. All the 21 accused were acquitted by a fast-track court in Vadodara but later nine people were convicted after a retrial in Mumbai. Five of these were later acquitted by the Bombay high court and four were given life terms.

Harshad was arrested by Rajasthan police in 2010 while Mafat was arrested by the NIA in March this year from his home in the Gajrawadi area of the city. Jayanti and Ramesh were also residents of the same locality but were presently staying in Kashipur.

It is believed that Jayanti, Ramesh and Mafat stayed at slain RSS pracharark Sunil Joshi's house in Madhya Pradesh for some months and disappeared after the latter's murder in December 2007. The arrested accused may also be interrogated in connection with Joshi's murder.

Sources said that the NIA was to produce Jayanti and Ramesh in a local court to obtain a transit remand on Saturday night. Following this, they are likely to be taken to a designated court in Jaipur that is hearing the Ajmer blast case. Sources added that with the arrest of the father-son duo all absconding accused in the bakery case have been apprehended.

Besides the bakery accused quartet, a Mukesh Vasani from Godhra and a Bhavesh Patel from Bharuch were also arrested for the Ajmer blast from the state.