Date:21/12/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/12/21/stories/2004122104271200.htm

National

Zahira to depose today

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, DEC. 20. Zahira Sheikh, the prime eye-witness in the Best Bakery case who backtracked last month, will depose tomorrow in the retrial here at the court of the Additional Sessions Judge, Abhay Thipsay.

Zahira was brought to the court today but had to wait as the cross-examination of her mother, Sehrunissa, by the Special Public Prosecutor, Manjula Rao, ended only in the evening. The social activist and journalist, Teesta Setalvad,submitted some documents to the court, including the original of Zahira's letter to her asking for help after the acquittal of the accused in June 2003 at Baroda.

Zahira held a press conference at Baroda on November 3, where she charged Ms. Setalvad with "coercing and kidnapping her and threatening her and her family." Zahira's two brothers, her sister and mother have turned hostile in the re-trial.

Sehrunissa said that she did not know who performed the last rites of her daughter Sabira, who was killed in the riots. She did not know where her body was taken and who took it from the hospital for the last rites. She did not make efforts to find out either. She was alone when Sabira's body was identified and did not remember anything.

According to a statement to the police on March 10, 2002, she and her son, Nafitullah, were asked to identify a body. She had said that the body was not that of Kauser Ali, her brother, but that of Prakash, a worker at the Bakery. However, in court she denied having done so.

Threatened her daughters

She said that Rais Khan, an associate of Ms. Setalvad, had threatened her daughters, Zahira and Saira, when they had gone to Baroda to sell their house in Ekta Nagar. Ms. Setalvad had called up Rais Khan and told him to bring them back to Mumbai. She also said that Rais Khan accompanied the two women back to Mumbai and had dropped them at a place called Kashi Mira. She said that Rais Khan had kept her in captivity and also threatened them on three occasions, and told them not to go to Baroda. She did not lodge a police complaint regarding this.

"Life in danger"

Since last Navratri, she had felt that her life and her children's lives were in danger. She also said in response to a question from Ms. Rao that the persons arrested in the Best Bakery case were not from her locality.

She admitted that there was some talk of Zahira's marriage after the riots but it was called off, though she did not know the reason. She denied that the person in question was the younger brother of Sanaullah, her husband's nephew. She had earlier denied knowing Sanaullah. She also said that Sanaullah did not help her to buy the flat at Mira Road where she had been staying.

She also denied meeting Ms. Rao sometime back, along with two persons from Mira Road. Sehrunissa's cross-examination by Ms. Rao after she turned hostile on December 15, ended today. The defence did not cross-examine her.