Court to examine 9 defence witnesses in Bilkis Bano case

Mumbai, Jun 3 (UNI) Nine defence witnesses will be examined by a local court from tomorrow in gang rape case of Bilkis Bano and massacre the minority community members at Radhapur village of Dahod district in Gujarat on March 3, 2002, which occurred in the aftermath of the Godhra train carnage.

On last hearing defence advocates had submitted the list of nine witnesses in the court of Additional Sessions Judge U D Salvi.

Judge Salvi had issued the summons to the witnesses and then fixed June 4 as the date for commencement of their examination.

The court had concluded recording of the accused's statements on May 19. Prosecution had so far examined 72 witnesses out of more than 150, whose name were cited in the list.

It may be recalled that the Supreme Court had transferred the case from Gujarat to Maharashtra on August 6, 2005, following the fear expressed by Bilkis Bano that ''the witnesses and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the case, would come under harm in Gujarat''.

Of the 20 accused, Judge U D Salvi had framed charges against 19 and separated the trial of accused Dr Sangeeta Prasad, as she was under treatment.

The conspiracy was allegedly hatched between February 28 and March 3, 2002. On March 3, 12 of the 20 accused allegedly attacked the victims and gangraped Bilkis Bano, who was six-months pregnant then. The attackers also sexually molested Bano's other family members before assaulting them. Of the 17 attacked, eight died, while six others were reported missing. Three of them -- Bilkis Bano, master Hussain and Sadaam -- survived the massacre.

Six police officers are charged with shielding the guilty, while a doctor couple -- Arun Kumar and Sangeeta Prasad -- are accused of making evidence disappear.

UNI