A special court in Mumbai has issued a notice to the editor and a reporter of a leading English daily for publishing a story on alleged attempts made by gangster Dawood Ibrahim to kill 16 accused in the Best Bakery case lodged in Mumbai's Arthur Road jail.

Terrorist And Disruptive Act court, which is conducting the trial into the serial blasts of March 12, 1993, issued the notice to the journalists asking them to be present on December 23 and explain why no action should be taken against them.

The court's order came after a plea made by Salim Mira Shaikh, an accused in the 1993 blast case, through his lawyer Farhana Shah, claimed that the story was false.

On December 12, the newspaper had carried a story claiming that underworld Dawood Ibrahim's men had tried to kill the accused in the Best Bakery killing by poisoning their food.

It said that the plan was foiled after a letter written in Urdu was seized by the jail authorities.

The applicant, however, claimed that the letter did not reveal any such plans and the contents of the letter referred to some other matter.

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Was there a plot to kill Best Bakery accused?