Zaheera Sheikh, prime witness in the Best Bakery case, will depose before a special court here on October 26.The prosecution has already examined 22 witnesses and is ready to put another four in the box tomorrow.After that, eight eye-witnesses, including Zaheera, her two brothers and a sister, will depose from October 26. In the last phase of cross-examination, relatives of the victims and doctors who performed post-mortem will be examined.The Supreme Court has set December 31 as the deadline for conclusion of the retrial in this case. However, prosecution sources said that they would close evidence by November-end.Fourteen people, most of them from the minority community, were killed in Best Bakery in Vadodara on March 1, 2002, in the riots after the Godhra train carnage. Although 21 accused were tried by a fast track court, all of them were acquitted since the witnesses turned hostile. The Gujarat HC also upheld the lower court order acquitting the accused.Later, Zaheera moved the Supreme Court with the help of an NGO, seeking retrial in the case on the ground that she had been intimidated during earlier trial.
