Delivering his 42-page judgement, Special Judge C S Oza said the accused had been acquitted under section 227 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The 13 accused who have been acquitted include Salman Subakhan Pathan, Nadir Khan alias Tinu Yusuf Khan, Tamijuddin Jalaluddin Mujahid Pirjada Sayyed, Javed Khan Aajijkhan Pathan, Yusuf Khan Khudavat Khan Pathan alias Yusuf Lup Lup alias Mumma, Usman Ghani Nurmuhammad Merchant, Vijay Natwar Laal Mehta, V Kannupillai (Former director-general, prisons), Abdul Rauf Abdul Kadir, Jethabhai Ghilabhai Bharwad `Ahir' (Samajwadi Party MLA from Sehra in Panchmahal district), Ramesh Manubhai Dave, Limbabhai Vajabhai Kharadi (Ex-Superintendent, Sabarmati Jail) and Dr K.P. Sutarya.

Interestingly, of the 13 accused, only four were prisoners, and the rest government officials. The court said they were acquitted as they were not found prima facie guilty and all the evidence produced before the court against them by the petitioners (Bijal Joshi and the state government) was found to be insufficient to prove the charges. In her complaint filed in the state Anti-corruption Bureau on August 3, 1995, Joshi accused all the 13 individuals of facilitating escape for prisoners, besides alleging that she was raped.

The case was charge sheeted by the Anti Corruption Bureau in 1996 and the High Court later ordered a CBI inquiry into the case.

According to the CBI report, Joshi, a college student, sought entry into the Sabarmati Jail on the plea that she wanted to conduct some study on criminals. The permission was granted to her by the then State DG, Prisons, Kannu Pillai at the behest of the Minister of State for Home Mahendra Trivedi. Pillai denied the allegations.

The court, however, observed that L V Kharadi (the then jail superintendent) had no option but to follow his bosses' instructions. Both the officers, Dindayal Tuteja and Pillai, in turn, had been directed by Trivedi that Joshi be allowed entry into the jail.

Kharadi also successfully contested the complainants' allegations that sick prisoners were sent out of jail for treatment. Joshi's allegation of rape also failed to stand in the court as medical reports had proved that there were no marks of injuries on her body and that reports indicated that she had not had sex.