Wednesday, June 1 2005 17:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Prime witness in the Best Bakery case Zaheera Sheikh today (Jun 1, 2005) informed the special court that she had taken to tailoring and her brother Nasibullah was working as a labour to eke out a living.

Zaheera admitted that a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) had financed her trip to Delhi to file an application in the Supreme Court seeking re-trial from Gujarat to any other State.

She was replying to questions put to her by a special court conducting the re-trial in the best Bakery carnage.

The special judge Abhay Thipsay questioned Zaheera about the application she had filed in the apex court and also about the expenses paid by the NGO-Janadikar and certain other aspects.

When asked by the court if she had made an application to Janadikar for assistance she said yes her family had given an application.

However, she also said that the NGO was not looking after the expenses of her family for the last three odd months.

"I have been tailoring and my brother Nasibullah has been working as a labourer," she said.

However, she admitted that the NGO had paid for the travel expenses of the family recently when they had to appear before the Supreme Court.

Zaheera further said she was not aware of the exact amount, which the NGO use to spend on them.

Further, she was shown the police rescue video in which she was seen talking to a policeman. After viewing the video Zaheera said she remembered talking to the policeman but did not remember his name.

The court, on May 25, had asked Zaheera to remain present in the court as it wanted 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 in Mumbai is conducting the re-trial in the case following the Supreme Court directive to hold it in Maharashtra. Fourteen persons were killed in the attack on the Best bakery at Vadodara on March 1, 2002 during the Gujarat riots.