Monday, March 21 2005 17:26 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Bilkis Bano, prime witness in the Dahod gangrape-cum-massacre case, was today (Mar 21, 2005) grilled by defence lawyers at a special court in Mumbai amidst tight security.

Bilkis told defence counsel Harshad Ponda that she had filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in Supreme Court urging that the trial be shifted to any court outside Gujarat.

However, Bilkis said that she was not aware of any "annexures" to the SLP, a defence lawyer said.

According to prosecutor R K Shah, the annexures pertained to investigation papers and statements of witnesses recorded by Gujarat police. The annexures were filed to support the SLP's argument that the investigation done by Gujarat police was "not proper".

Ponda concluded the cross-examination of Bilkis and another lawyer S K Jain would take over cross- examination later.

Special judge U D Salvi is conducting the trial in the alleged gangrape of Bilkis and her family members and killing of her relatives in Dahod in Gujarat on March 3, 2003.

Bilkis had earlier identified in the court 12 accused, who were allegedly involved in raping her and killing her family members.

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

On January 13, the court had framed charges against the accused for their alleged complicity in attacking 17 members of minority community, including Bilkis Bano, in Devgarh Baria village of Dahod district.