Wednesday, April 20 2005 21:04 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: A Special court, conducting the retrial in the Best Bakery case, today (Apr 20, 2005) issued summons to prime witness Zaheera Sheikh asking her to appear before it on April 25 for re-examination.

On a prosecution plea, the summons were issued today asking Zaheera to appear before the Special Judge Abhay Thipsay on April 25, prosecution lawyers told PTI.

The move follows prosecution's request to cross-examine Zaheera, who had turned hostile, in the light of fresh evidence.

The Public Prosecutor said she wanted to examine Zaheera based on the material seen in the video CD shown to the court earlier this month on April 4. The contents of the CD are in contradiction to what Zaheera, her mother and brother had said before the court on oath.

Even the investigation officer (IO), who had recorded Zaheera's statement after the Best Bakery fire incident in 2002, had made several statements in the court that were in contradiction to what Zaheera had said.

The prosecution wants to confront Zaheera with the fresh evidence on CD and the IO's statement.

The Special court in Mumbai is conducting the retrial in the case following a Supreme Court directive to hold it in Maharashtra.

Fourteen people were killed in the attack on the Best Bakery at Vadodara on March 1, 2002.