However, during cross-examination by Mumbai police counsel Harshad Ponda, Baldev, a colleague of Sada's brother Anand, admitted that he had visited Sada's village in Kolhapur district in March 1995 to attend the wedding of his sister Yashoda. When shown some photographs of Sada Pawle taken at the wedding, Baldev said he did not know ``the bearded man'', adding that he did not remember having seen him at the wedding either.

Baldev told the enquiry commission that he had known Anand for a long time and that he had attended his (Anand's) marriage in June 1997. On being shown a picture taken at Anand's wedding, Baldev could recognise Sada Pawle's son in the photograph.

Baldev further disclosed that on some occasions he used to visit Pawle's ancestral house at Kolhapur andalso Dagdi Chawl -- where, according to him, Sada used to stay.

Going on to depose about the killing itself, Baldev said that at the time of the encounter, Anand and his sister Hausabai did not take Sada Pawle's name when they were pleading with the police officers to let go of their brother. ``Leave my brother'' was all that they said, Baldev told the enquiry commission.

As he was acquainted with Anand's other brother, he realised -- at this point of time that Anand was talking about Sada Pawle, Baldev said. It may be recalled that Baldev had earlier told the commission that Sada Pawle and Vijay Tandel had been introduced to him as Ajay and Bhaskar, a few hours before they were killed. Hearing Anand's requests to the police, Baldev said he realised that Ajay was actually Sada Pawle.

Baldev further said that 10 days after the incident, Anand met him and apprised him of the role played by each officer in the killings. Anand told him that the person who pointed the gun at him (Baldev) was one Shetye,while one Avinash Sawant pointed a revolver at Anand himself. He was also told that assistant police inspector Vijay Salaskar was ``the leader of the pack''.

Baldev also said that soon after the incident, on the very day of the encounter, he came to know that Salaskar was the man who shot Sada Pawle. About the role played by police officer Hemant Desai, Baldev said that he was told that Desai was involved in organising the killings. He added that the first person to shoot Vijay Tandel was one Jadhav. Baldev also said that he did not mention any of these facts in his affidavit.