India, June 18 -- Thirty-three years after he was assaulted by the police, Qutbuddin Shaikh, then a 17-year-old madrasa student, on Wednesday told a sessions court how he was beaten till he lost consciousness. Shaikh was testifying in the murder trial of policemen involved in the raid on the Mohammed Ali road-located Suleman Usman Bakery and its adjacent madrasa during the second phase of the Mumbai riots of 1992-93, which left eight unarmed Muslims dead.

Now 50, and an imam in a Santacruz masjid, Shaikh also testified that he saw his teacher Maulana Abdul Kasim being beaten by the police. "He was handicapped, hence he could not run away," he said.

Shaikh told the court that he and 10 to 12 other students had finished lunch and were in ...