Mumbai: A series of contradictions and omissions today (Oct 28, 2004) surfaced during the cross-examination of an eye witness in Best bakery case as defence lawyers grilled him in an attempt to demolish his account of happenings in the carnage that left 14 dead in Vadodara.

Deposing before the court, the witness, Taufel Ahmed Habibullah Shaikh, said he had seen prime witness Zaheera Shaikh, her mother and grand mother being led towards a room by a group of people on March 1, 2002 but denied his earlier version that they were confined in a room.

Taufel had identified seven accused yesterday, saying he had witnessed the violent crowd attacking the Bakery on that day and tying the limbs of prime witness Zaheera, her mother and grandmother while pushing them into a room nearby.

Today, he contradicted his own statement saying that he had only seen the three women being led towards the room. He said the court might have made a mistake in recording his statement yesterday (Oct 28, 2004) that they were pushed into a room and added his yesterday's statement was not recorded properly.

Defence lawyer Adhik Shirodkar, cross-examining Taufel, pointed out several contradictions and omissions that existed in the witness' statement given to police soon after the riots and his deposition before the court.

Taufel, he said, has furnished several pieces of evidence in the court in the last two days, which are not a part of his statement that was recorded by police earlier.

"There are 25 omissions in his statement and most of his deposition is different from his earlier police statement," the lawyer submitted.