ew Delhi, Nov 13. (UNI): SAHMAT today demanded a CBI inquiry into the u-turn by Best Bakery case witness Zaheera Sheikh and said that the government should ensure security to all witnesses of the cases relating to Godhra carnage.

The SAHMAT also asked the UPA government to seriously explore the "legal feasibility" of using article 356 of the Constitution to remove the Narendra Modi Government in Gujarat for using state machinery to stop dispensation of justice.

At a meeting which was attended by many intellectuals and CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury and social activist Teesta Setalvad the SAHMAT expressed solidarity with Ms Setalvad, whom Zaheera had charged of threatening her to name "certain people," and took serious note of the renewed attempts by the Modi government to subvert the course of justice with respect to the cases of genocide.

It felt that the Best Bakery case in Maharashtra may not yield just result if the Modi government was permitted to brazenly interfere in the prosecution.

The Zaheer Sheikh incident had revealed the clear involvement of the continued involvement of the Modi government and its state machinery in ensuring that the criminals were protected.

The SAHMAT asked the Centre to depute the CBI to examine the way Zaheera was whisked away from Gujarat and given full state protection and made to address the press conference a day before she was due to testify in a Maharashtra court to fix responsibility.

Moreover, the government should also take steps to ensure "physical and jurisdictional" security to all the witnesses in the other cases including those relating to Godhra carnage who are still in Gujarat.

"The Centre should also seriously explore the legal feasibility of invoking Article 356 of the Constitution with respect to the Gujarat government since it is clear to any right thinking citizen that the Modi Government 40 continues to highjack the Constitutional provisions with respect to dispensation of justice and to use state machinery for this purpose," the SAHMAT said.

Ms Setlavad said the incident had raised the wider question of the witness' security and underlined the need to bring systemic changes in the laws relating to witness protection and role of police and other agencies in it.