Dec
27
Tehelka Says Zaheera Took Money from BJP: Updates on the Best Bakery Case
December 27, 2004 | Comments Off on Tehelka Says Zaheera Took Money from BJP: Updates on the Best Bakery Case
Zaheera Shiekh has dominated the news for the past two weeks, with people speculating over what prompted her to make her second recantation. In her testimony last week, Zaheera said she saw nothing during the Best Bakery attack:
In all six witnesses, among them Ms Sheikh’s mother and two brothers, have now refused to identify those in the dock in Mumbai.
In earlier statements to the police they had all named the accused as being responsible for the Best Bakery killings…
Her sister, Sabira, was killed in the violence. When asked who was throwing the stones, Zahira Sheikh said that she did not know.
“It was dark and there was smoke. So how could I see?”
Last month, Ms Sheikh’s sister-in-law, Yasmin Sheikh, testified that Zahira changed her statement after accepting bribes.
Saira, Zaheera’s sister, also turned hostile in court:
During examination by prosecution here, Saira went back on her statement made during her deposition in the fast track court at Vadodara.
At the Vadodara court she had named four factory workers, including her maternal uncle Kauser Ali as “dead” in the mishap on March 1, 2002, when a group of people had set the bakery afire.
However, during her deposition in special court here today, Saira denied naming four factory workers as “dead”.
To the questions posed by the prosecution, the witness repeatedly replied “I do not know” and “I do not remember”, following which the court reprimanded her and reminded her that she was on oath.
Saira blamed a blanket on her inability to see anything. Their mother has also turned hostile, saying she received death threats from a human rights activist to depose against the defendants. All of the other witnesses, who had turned hostile in the first trial, did not turn hostile in this trial and stood by their statements to police.
Hints of wrongdoing mounted as the special court set up to retry the case ordered an investigation into Zaheera’s finances after reports of her use of a luxury car. Then, at a press conference on December 22, Tehelka released footage regarding a bribe paid to Zaheera:
In a seemingly convincing undercover operation, the Tehelka today showed a spycam footage before mediapersons to claim that the Best Bakery prime witness Zaheera Sheikh was paid Rs 18 lakh by a BJP MLA Madhu Shrivastva to turn hostile.
The 10-minute video footage screened at a press conference showed Mr Srivastava telling Vadodara corporator Nisar Bapu that the amount paid to Ms Sheikh was Rs 18 lakh.
“At least now Zaheera Sheikh must be made by some authority to give the clear picture in the Best Bakery carnage,” Tehelka editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal stressed.
The Tehelka cover has sought police protection. The judge of the Best Bakery retrial has reportedly received threatening emails. The Chief Minister of Maharashtra has assured “adequate steps” to provide security for the judge.
Mukul Sinha, the advocate representing the Jan Sangharsha Manch before the Nanavati and Shah Commission investigating the Gujarat pogroms, has also submitted an application requesting the cross-examination of Zaheera and an explanation of her recantation. The Gujarat government challenged this application, stating there was no need to cross-examine Zaheera.
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