Friday, March 25 2005 10:15 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: A senior police official yesterday (Mar 24, 2005) informed a special court conducting the Best Bakery re-trial that he had not maintained record of the names of assailants disclosed by three victims of the Bakery carnage.

Superintendent of police (Kutch) Piyush Patel, the then deputy commissioner of Vadodara, had on Wednesday (Mar 23, 2005) said three women, who had had rushed out of the Bakery on the morning of March 2, 2002, a day after it was set on fire, had named some persons as part of the mob.

Replying to queries posed by the defence counsel Adhik Shirodkar, Patel, however, said he did realise the importance of statement given by the three women, as they could have been eyewitnesses.

Patel's statement before the court on Wednesday is considered significant in the Bakery re-trail.

He said that the three women named Jayanti Chaiwala, his son Mahesh Chaiwala, Kiran, Munno, Pratap, Jitu, Lalo and Painter as part of the mob that attacked the bakery and burnt it.

Patel said he saw seven dead bodies and nine injured who were taken to SSG hospital.

Fourteen persons were killed in the attack on Best Bakery on March 1, 2002 in the post-Godhra riots. The special court in Mumbai is conducting the re-trial in the case, following a Supreme Court directive.