Nariman House : Cook tells court how he escaped with baby Qazi Zakir Hussein,or Jackie,who worked as a cook for Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka,narrated in court on Thursday how he had fled with two-year-old Moshe during the 26/11 attack. The babys parents were murdered during the attack. Hussein said he and the babys nanny,Sandra Samuel,were on their way out of Jewish Chabad Centre in Nariman House,Colaba,on the morning November 27 when they suddenly heard the babys cries. They rushed back and picked him up before fleeing,he told the special sessions court. Hussein,23,stood stiff in the dock,switching between Hindi and English but keeping his deposition strictly to the point. He had hidden behind a refrigerator in a storeroom on the first floor,he said,with a tense look about him. All night long,they heard gunshots and the sound of glass shattering. Earlier,he said,he had served kosher dinner to the rabbi,his family and four guests on the second floor of five-storey building. Around 9:25 pm,when he and the nanny were in the first-floor storeroom,a gunman appeared on the second-floor staircase,fired at him and missed,Hussein said. Hussein and Samuel immediately entered the room,switched off the lights and locked the door from inside. Hussein said he and Samuel hid behind the fridge until the next morning. The next day,the two crept out of the building,when they suddenly heard the baby crying on the second floor. They rushed back in and to the second floor,where Samuel picked up Moshe and came out again,he said. Hussein was taken to the Colaba police station soon after his escape. The police recorded his statement on December 11,and Israeli Consulate personnel rushed him to the consulate,Hussein said. Ruling on MEA joint secretaryThe court will on November 4 give a ruling on the prosecutions plea to issue a summons to joint secretary Manpreet Vohra of the Ministry of External Affairs. The prosecution wants him to depose on the Pakistani passport allegedly seized from accused Fahim Ansari.
