Best Bakery case: Zaheera likely to be questioned Tuesday, May 31 2005 20:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -
Mumbai:
The special court, conducting the re-trial in the Best Bakery carnage, is likely to question the prime witness Zaheera Sheikh tomorrow (June1, 2005).
Zaheera was to be questioned today (May 31, 2005) but was not as the prosecution was grilling her brother Nafitullah.
The court, on May 25,2005 had asked Zaheera to remain present in the court as it was to question her on certain aspects.
After the prosecution concluded cross-examination of Zaheera on May 25 for the second time, the court expressed its desire to question the witness.
The prosecution was re-examining her in the light of the fresh evidence placed before the court in the form of two videos -- one capturing the police rescue operations at the bakery a day after it was attacked on March 1, 2002 and the other focussing on Zaheera's interview taken by a television journalist some days after the attack on bakery.
As Zaheera had turned hostile during the re-trial in the special court in Mumbai, the prosecution decided to cross-examine her in the wake of fresh evidence presented to the court.
The special court here is conducting the re-trial in the case following a Supreme Court directive to hold it in Maharashtra. 14 persons were killed in the attack on the Best bakery at Vadodara on March 1, 2002 during the Gujarat riots.