BARODA, Nov 3: A key prosecution witness in the trial of Hindus accused of massacring Muslims during riots in Gujarat state claimed on Wednesday that a rights activist had demanded she give false evidence.

Zaheera Sheikh, 20 - whose father was among the Muslim victims - filed an affidavit with a Baroda administrator asking police to protect her from non-governmental organization activist Teesta Setalvad, police said.

"Zaheera today said ... that the NGO activist was pressuring her to name innocent persons during the retrial at the Mumbai court," city police commissioner S. K. Sinha said, citing the affidavit.

Ms Sheikh later said at a press conference she was picked up from Baroda in a car and kept confined in a hotel room in Mumbai "where Setalvad beat me up and threatened me and demanded I give (false) testimony.

"She told me she had powerful people behind her and would have me and my family killed if I didn't. At the first given opportunity I ran away and came here."

Setalvad, who works for the NGO Citizens for Peace and Justice, denied the charges and said Ms Sheikh's comments were part of a conspiracy to discredit the massacre trial.

"I one hundred per cent deny those allegations. She must realise the consequences of what she is saying," said Setalvad.

"The timing of this has to be seen in the correct light because Sheikh is scheduled to appear in court tomorrow (Thursday)."

Setalvad's colleague Rais Khan, who is also named in the affidavit, said Zaheera Sheikh had been "influenced by some people" to turn against Setalvad but did not name anyone.

Ms Sheikh's father was one of 12 Muslims who died when his bakery in Baroda was set alight by a Hindu mob at the height of rioting in 2002.

The so-called Best Bakery case is seen as a test of justice in India. There have been no major convictions over the massacre in which at least 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, were burnt, shot or hacked to death.

Zaheera Sheikh earlier this year claimed she and her family had been intimidated by rightwingers into giving false evidence when 21 Hindus were tried - and acquitted - in a Gujarat court last year for the Best Bakery killings.-AFP