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Yasmin arrives at the special court in Mumbai. (PTI)
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Mumbai, Nov. 17: The defence in the Best Bakery case has said they will produce in court a VCD containing an old interview of Yasmin Sheikh, eyewitness and sister-in-law of Zahira Sheikh, in which she has made statements that contradict what she has told the special court.
Former ?prime witness? Zahira, who has since turned hostile, is in Mumbai with her family members but did not appear in court today. Her lawyer, Harshad Ponda, said today they will appear in court when the prosecution requires them.
Zahira?s brothers Nafitullah and Nasibullah may be produced in court tomorrow.
The defence today continued its cross-examination of Yasmin, Nafitullah?s estranged first wife, questioning her about an interview she gave after the Bakery case accused were acquitted by a fast-track court in Vadodara.
It said her remarks in the interview, aired in September last year before the Supreme Court decided to transfer the case here, undermine her credibility.
The defence said it would make an application to the court to play the VCD of the interview aired on the Gujarati channel TNN. In it, Yasmin reportedly says the accused, 11 of whom she identified yesterday, are ?innocent? and had been fingered by Zahira and her mother because they wanted to earn money.
?Yeh log nirdosh hai,? she is believed to have said.
However, Yasmin denies having said this, even though she says the rest of the statement attributed to her is correct ? that she would be ready to depose before the Supreme Court or any other court and state the truth.
Yasmin also denied having said Vadodora leaders Madhu Srivastava, a BJP MLA, and Congress councillor Chandrakant, alias Bhattu, had saved their lives. The statement reportedly appears in the interview.
In the morning the questions put to Yasmin raised eyebrows over her statement yesterday that four people had tried to molest her during the bakery carnage in which 14 people, including members of Zahira?s family, were killed.
Yasmin told the court she had heard Jagdish, Chintu, Mafat and Munna say they would rape her by turns. She was angered and embarrassed when questioned further about Munna and Mafat?s role and asked if it was shameful for a mother to hear she was going to be raped.
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