Mumbai: A local court has deferred till Friday its judgement in the Best Bakery case, one of the worst incidents in the violence that beset Gujarat four years ago.

Fourteen people were burnt alive in the ovens of the Best Bakery, on the outskirts of the Gujarat town of Vadodara on March 1, 2002. Nine of the victims were from key witness Zahira Sheikh's family. Zahira's father Habibullah Sheikh owned the bakery.

A fast track court had acquitted all 21 accused for want of evidence as a majority of the witnesses had turned hostile.

The Supreme Court ordered a retrial in the case in a special court in Mumbai after a petition was filed by Teesta Setalvad, who heads the Mumbai-based rights organisation Citizen for Justice and Peace.

The Mumbai court framed charges in September 2004 and the trial began a month later.