A court in Baroda, India, has acquitted all Hindus charged with burning alive 12 Muslims in a bakery, citing lack of evidence.
It was the first verdict in a case relating to the Gujarat riots which shocked India last year.
Branding Friday's judgment a gross injustice, outraged human rights activists and opposition parties have accused Gujarat's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and the police of terrorising witnesses and survivors into retracting their statements which led to the acquittals.
Sitaram Yechury, a senior Communist Party leader, said: 'It's a rigged verdict. Witnesses were intimidated into disowning their statements so that the killers could walk free.'
Mr Yechury has urged the Supreme Court to intervene and order a retrial outside Gujarat.
On March 1, 2002, in one of the worst massacres during the religious violence in Gujarat, 12 Muslims hiding in Best Bakery, Baroda, 100km from Ahmedabad, were burnt alive when a Hindu mob set it on fire killing everyone inside, including bakery owner Habibullah Sheikh.
Sheikh's daughter, Zaheera Bibi - who had a miraculous escape - was the prime witness. She retracted her statement given to the police during investigations and refused to identify alleged killers and rioters during the trial.
