08, May 2017

The Times of
India 23 November 2004

Nafitullah
says Yasmin was not present during attack
 
Times News
Network 

Mumbai : Zahira SheikhÂ’s
older brother Nafitullah Shiekh on Monday told the court that at the time
of the attack, his grandmother (nani) and estranged wife Yasmin were not
present in the Best Bakery. “I do not know why the police have written
their names in the report,” he said.

            However,
Dayaram Pal, a leading firemen from the Rajrawadi fire station, had told
the court on October 7, that fire brigade officers K D Patel from Panigate
fire station and I M Sutar from Dandia bazaar had heard the cries of an
old woman from the terrace. “We immediately erected the ladder from the
rear side of the house and rescued her. There were charred bodies of three
women and four children in a room below the terrace,” Pal had said.

            Responding
vaguely to questions posed by special public prosecutor Manjula Rao,
Nafitullah said he did not even know the names of neighbours in Vadodara.

            He admitted
before the court that while they were leaving Mumbai a fortnight ago, the
family knew about ZahiraÂ’s volte-face and the subsequent press conference.

            Responding to
questions raised by Rao during the cross-examination, Nafitullah said,
“Zahira spoke about the press conference on our way to Vadodara (‘Zahira
ne press conference ki baat raaste main batayee’).”

            Nafitullah
said that his mother Sehrunissa, sisters Zahira and Saira, brother
Nasibullah, wife (Hena) and her brother Kamaluddin were traveling with him
at the time. But he could not state the exact date of their arrival in
Vadodara.

            He admitted
meeting their new lawyer Atul Mistry a day prior to the press conference
organised by the Janadhikar Samiti. “That was the first time Zahira and
myself met him. We lodged a police complaint against Teesta Setalvad in
Vadodara,” he said. But when Rao asked him to name the police station,
Nafitullah said, “I do not know. Our lawyer (Atul Mistry) did the
needful.”

            When Rao
named some of the persons he had accused in his original police complaint,
a baffled Nafitullah said, “I do not know who they are. They were not part
of the mob that attacked the bakery.”

BOX
NafitullahÂ’s fresh deposition

Denies knowing name of
his own daughter

Denies knowing name of
any neighbour

Does not know which
police station he lodged a written police complaint against Teesta
Setalvad at

VHP calls for bandh on
Monday – except for Ravi Chavan not a single accused is present in the
courtroom..