Jamshedpur, Sept. 26: After a lull in the deposition of the Nirmal Mahato murder case, the fast-track court three today heard a key eyewitness, Nirmal Bhattacharya, reliving the fateful day when the JMM leader was gunned down in front of the Chamaria guest house.

Bhattacharya deposed before the court during the trial of another accused Dhiraj Singh alias Pappu.

Earlier, as many as six witness had turned up before the court for the deposition but none of them spoke a word about the incident neither have they identified the accused.

Those who have already deposed include Congress leaders Rajni Singh, Dhananjay Mahato, Suresh Khaitan, Indra Kumar Chowdhary, Vijay Kumar Srivastava and Shamim Akhtar.

While deposing before the court, Bhattacharya said that on that day he was driving the jeep of the slain JMM leader.

He said he was seated in the front seat of the jeep and was waiting for Mahato to come out of the Tisco guest house. When Mahato stepped out of the guest house, he was surrounded by a number of people.

A little later, he saw Birendra Singh, Narendra Singh alias Pandit and Dhiraj Singh alias Pappu arrive at the spot. Birendra Singh shouted at others to kill Mahato and opened fire himself, firing a shot at Mahato’s chest. Subsequently, he saw Pandit and Pappu opening fire at the JMM leader. After firing from three directions from close range, the three fled in a car.

Bhattacharya added that soon after the incident all those present at the spot rushed to pick up the slain leader who had collapsed on the ground. Mahato was rushed to Tata Main Hospital but was declared brought-dead. Bhattacharya was cross-examined by defence lawyers but he stuck to his statements.

This is the second time that Bahattacharya has given such a statement to the court. Earlier, in 2000, he had in the court of the then first additional district judge Sri Krishna Murari made a similar statement while the trial of Birender Singh was on. Later, in September 2000 Birender Singh was convicted by the court and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Bhattacharya has also been quizzed a couple of times by the CBI after it took over the case from the government.

A team of CBI officials had come to the city and had taken Bhattacharya to some unknown destination. But on both these occasions Bhattacharya was “not very forthcoming”.

Nirmal Mahato was murdered on August 8, 1987, leading the police to register a case against Birender Singh, Pappu and Pandit. But the government handed over the case to the CBI the following year as the district police failed to arrest the culprits.