Overview

• The court acquitted Sachinbhai Patel, Mitul Patel and Mitesh alias Dhobi of rioting, arson and unlawful assembly charges from the March 1, 2002 Lotia Bagod unrest
• Justice Gita Gopi’s 98-page verdict delivered on July 28 found that key witness identifications were inconsistent and uncorroborated
• The bench noted that no Test Identification Parade was conducted and that no physical proof linked the appellants to shop burnings or lootings
• It held that Section 149 of the IPC could not apply because only four of nine accused had been convicted, short of the five-person threshold for unlawful assembly liability
• The acquittal concludes appeals spanning nearly two decades, during which one convict, Alpesh Patel, died in 2009 and his appeal abated in 2020