Best Bakery: Eyewitness identifies 15 accused

Sailun Khan, the seventh eyewitness in the Best Bakery case, on Monday identified 15 accused in a trial court in Mumbai.

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A mob had attacked the bakery on March 1, 2002, at the height of the Gujarat communal riots, killing 14 people.

Khan, an employee of the bakery, identified three accused by names and the rest by faces.

The three accused, identified by names, were -- Dinesh Rajbhar, Sanjay Thakker and Lala.

The witness told the court that Rajbhar and Sanjay were carrying swords that day. He was hit on the head, he said.

Khan's testimony must come as a relief to the prosecution still reeling under the turnaround of the prime witness, Zaheera Sheikh.

On November 3, Zaheera told the Vadodara collector that she was being pressured by social activist Teesta Setalvad to identify innocent people as accused in the Mumbai court.

She also said that her original testimony before a fast-track court in Gujarat, where she had failed to identify a single accused, was true.

The Supreme Court had ordered a re-trial of the case in Mumbai only after Zaheera complained she had deposed before the court in Gujarat out of fear.