NEW DELHI, July 6: A woman who retracted her witness statement in court leading to the acquittal of 21 Hindus accused of killing 12 Muslims during communal riots in the Indian state of Gujarat, Sunday said she had lied after receiving death threats.

The Indian Express said Sehrunissa Sheikh, who was a key witness in the trial of the Hindus accused of burning down a bakery, which left 12 Muslims dead, was afraid of being killed.

She withdrew her original statement to police when she appeared in court to give evidence.

“Trembling with fear, we lied in court,” she told the newspaper.

“We received threats that if we speak ... we would be killed,” she said, adding she had been intimidated at the court hearing.

“In fear, we retracted our statements.”

On June 27, a court in Gujarat acquitted all the defendants, after 35 of the 60 witnesses retracted their statements in court.

Some even claimed that the accused had saved their lives during the violence.

The case was the most high-profile trial from the sectarian violence that ravaged Gujarat for months last year following the torching in February 2002 of 59 Hindus in a train by a Muslim mob in Gujarat’s Godhra city.

About 2,000 people died in the ensuing rioting, most of them Muslims.—AFP