The eight convicts in the Gujarat Best Bakery case, presently lodged at Kolhapur central prison, have a reason to feel optimistic. The Bombay high court on Monday asked the Maharashtra government to find out if they can be sent to Vadodara prison, the home town of most of the convicts.
“The law cannot be inflexible. There has to be some discretion,” remarked justice Ranjana Desai while asking the government to consider sending them to Gujarat. “Prisoners also have the right to meet their families, “ she added.
A division bench of justices Desai and Mridula Bhatkar has asked additional public prosecutor Poornima Kantharia to “read the law and find out if they can be transferred”. The court also directed the petitioner’s legal aides, advocate Murtuza Najmi and Sonia Miskin, to find out the legal provisions.
Kantharia informed the court that the accused cannot be transferred till their appeal was decided in the state. To which, justice Desai said, “The appeals may take 5-6 years to decide. They cannot be kept away from families for such a long time.”
The eight convicts, who were sentenced to life imprisonment, have been lodged at Kolhapur central prison since February 2007. Earlier this month, they had sent a handwritten letter to the court praying that they be transferred to Vadodara central prison. They were sentenced by a special court in Mumbai after the supreme court had transferred the trial in the post-Godhra riots in 2002 to Mumbai.
Their letter stated that since Kolhapur is far from Vadodara, their families cannot visit them often, and most being in a financial crisis, could not undertake such long travel as it was expensive.
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