Journalism of Courage
The defence on Tuesday cross-examined nine witnesses in the German Bakery case,who had earlier submitted affidavits to the court as evidence. Defence lawyer A Rehman cross-examined the owner of the bakery,some of its employees and a few auto-rickshaw drivers present at the rickshaw stand outside the bakery on the day of the blast.
Deposing before Additional Sessions Judge N P Dhote,watchman Ramesh Gitaprasad Panta said he was on the third floor of the building,where he resided,when the blast took place.
When he came running down,he said he saw police arriving first followed by the fire brigade,who sprayed water to douse the fire in the sitting area of the bakery.
Contradicting this,Kailas Popat Mallav,an auto-rickshaw driver,and Umesh Abaji Pongadwale,a salesman in a general stores adjacent to the bakery,said there was no fire at all. Hence,there was no question of dousing it with water. There was no fire in the bakery. Hence,there was no occasion for fire brigade to put water, said Pongadwale. Corroborating his statement,Mallav said,There was no fire…just smoke everywhere.
Even owner of the bakery Smita Dnyaneshwat Kharose and manager Ram Gopal Karki said that they had not seen water in the bakery. When asked by Rehman when had she got to know about the blast,Kharose said that it was when manager Ram Gopal Karki informed her about the blast at around 7.15. I reached the bakery at around 8.15 pm. The fire brigade had already reached the bakery and I saw that the fire was doused, she told the court.
Karki corroborated her statement by saying that the fire brigade was already at the bakery when he reached at around 7.30 pm on the day of blast. But I did not see water in the bakery, he said. Kharose also said that all the hard disks and video cassettes of CCTV footage were seized by the police,but the footage was never showed to her. Kharose was accompanied by her daughter Snehal Kharose in the court.
Earlier,special public prosecutor Raja Thakare had submitted evidence of 41 witnesses who were of formal nature through affidavits signed by the witnesses. Rehman and his assistant Kaynat Ali Shaikh representing the accused,Mirza Himayat Inayat Baig,had submitted names of 11 witnesses whom they wanted to cross-examine.
