The Hindu : Front Page : Bilkis Bano case adjourned till December 1

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 20, 2004

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Front Page

Bilkis Bano case adjourned till December 1

MUMBAI, NOV. 19. The special CBI court today supplied copies of draft charges in the Bilkis Bano case to prosecution and defence counsel and adjourned framing of charges till December 1 on a defence plea for more time to enable filing of bail applications for the accused.

Advocate Rajendra Shirodkar, appearing on behalf of three of the accused — Jaswantbhai Nai, Govindbhai Nai and Nareshkumar Mordhiya — filed a `vakalatnama' and told the court that he needed more time as he received copies of the charges and other documents only today.

Twenty people are accused in the case in which 14 people were killed in Dahod district of Gujarat during the post-Godhra riots and six-month pregnant Bilkis Bano was allegedly gang-raped.

The Additional Sessions Judge, U.D. Salvi, directed the defence advocates to file an affidavit on December 1 on an application filed by them in the court today quoting media reports that eye-witnesses were in the custody of social activists. The defence said witnesses should be kept in the safe custody of a Central or state agency.

Mr. Salvi asked the defence advocates to furnish details stating who supplied the information to the media and where the eyewitness were kept.

The court adjourned till December 1 the hearing on discharge as well as bail applications of an accused, Arunkumar Prasad. On August 6, the Supreme Court transferred the trial to Maharashtra following apprehension raised by Bilkis Bano, survivor of the massacre, that the witnesses and the officers of the CBI, which is probing the case, may be harmed in Gujarat. — UNI

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