SC orders protection for Gujarat carnage witness

The court issued the order ahead of a landmark hearing on a petition by India's human rights watchdog to reopen the trial of 21 people acquitted over the carnage in Gujarat.

The court ordered the Gujarat's Hindu nationalist-led government to extend protection to 17-year-old Zaheera Sheikh, who has fled the state as she seeks justice for her father and 11 workers in his bakery who died in the attack.

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Sheikh appealed to the court for protection and on Friday filed a separate petition for a retrial.

Twenty-one men were acquitted last month by a court in Gujarat after Sheikh and 72 other witnesses retracted their incriminating testimony. She said later that she lied in court after threats from local right-wing Hindu leaders.

The BJP party, which rules Gujarat and heads India's federal coalition, is roundly accused of turning a blind eye to the sectarian violence that raged for months and claimed the lives of some 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, in India's worst religious violence in a decade.

PTI adds: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to Gujarat government, in a petition filed by National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) seeking fresh trial outside Gujarat in five riot cases, including the Best Bakery case in which 21 accused were acquitted by the trial court.

The apex court directed the Gujarat government to provide protection to the victims and family members involved in the riot cases mentioned by the NHRC.