Wednesday, February 23 2005 17:47 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Bilkis Bano, prime witness in the Bilkis Bano gangrape-cum-murder case, today (Feb 23, 2005) informed the trial court at Mumbai that she was not aware of the Supreme Court order through which the investigations of the case were transferred from Gujarat police to CBI, defence lawyers said today.

Earlier, her examination-in-chief concluded and defence lawyers began her cross-examination in the in-camera trial for the alleged gang rape-cum-murder, which had taken place at Dahod in Gujarat on March 3, 2002.

Defence lawyer S K Jain said that Bilkis was questioned about the application made in the Supreme Court and also about various documents and statements before the police and CBI.

"She disowned many things with her reply saying she did not remember," he said adding she was also not aware that the investigations were transferred to the CBI.

Jain said, "We have not still questioned her about the actual incident and her cross-examination would continue tomorrow."

Special Public Prosecutor R K Shah also said that, although it was true that Bilkis answered most of the questions in the cross-examinations saying she did not remember, but added it was too premature to conclude anything.

"The cross-examination on the actual incident of gang rape and murder has yet to begin," he said and admitted that Bilkis had expressed ignorance about CBI investigating the case.

Bilkis had yesterday (Feb 22, 2005) identified 12 accused who were allegedly involved in raping her and killing her family members, prosecution said.

Of the 20 accused, eight are charged with shielding the guilty. Of these eight, two are a doctor-couple who performed the post-mortem of the victims while six others are police officers.

On January 13, the court had framed charges against the accused for their alleged complicity in attacking a group of 17 members of minority community, including Bilkis Bano, in Devgarh Baria village of Dahod district on March 3, 2002 in the aftermath of Godhra train carnage.

Of the 17 victims, eight were killed while six others were reported missing and three- Bilkis Bano, master Hussain and Sadaam - survived the attack.