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Zahira claims NGO coercion

- By Our Correspondent

Baroda, Nov. 3: The complainant and key eyewitness in the Best Bakery massacre case, Ms Zahira Sheikh, on Wednesday accused Citizens for Justice and Peace secretary Teesta Setalvad of threatening her. Appearing before a press conference in Baroda, Ms Sheikh said "her statements before the Baroda court were true" and that "she was now being forced to lie before the Mumbai court".

Ms Sheikh claimed Ms Setalvad, Mr Raees Khan and five others had abducted her and her family members before taking them to Mumbai. "Setalvad then forced me to file fresh complaints and affidavits in the Best Bakery case," Ms Sheikh said.

In Mumbai, addressing reporters outside Mazgaon court, Ms Setalvad denied Ms Sheikh’s allegations. "I am hurt and pained, but not defeated. I don’t understand why she would say something like this," she said. Ms Setalvad pointed out that Ms Sheikh’s allegations come at a time when the prosecution’s case is going strong and when Ms Sheikh and her brother were due to be examined in a day. "It is for you, the media and the people, to reflect on it," she said, adding, "Zahira should have thought about the consequences of her allegations after the Supreme Court passed such a landmark order." Ms Setalvad felt the allegations will not have any impact on the on-going trial here, but "will only affect Zahira’s credibility".

Mr Raees Khan told The Asian Age: "She (Zahira) is lying. I don’t know why she is doing it now. She had drafted many complaints in Hindi which we forwarded to the National Human Rights Commission and other agencies. We never threatened her."

In Baroda Ms Sheikh alleged, "I was shifted to Mumbai from Baroda under threat. Raees Khan and his goons, pointing a knife at me, had forced us to leave the city after the Baroda court’s verdict last year. Teesta kept all my family members at different places and did not allow us to meet one another. She also tortured me." After several futile attempts, Ms Sheikh claimed, she finally escaped on Tuesday from Ms Setalvad’s "captivity". However, sources closely associated with the case stated that Ms Sheikh and her family members had escaped about a week ago.

In affidavit (30/4) filed at Baroda on Wednesday, the Sheikh family narrated the incidents that occurred during their captivity. Mohammed Vohra, Arif Malek, Munna Malek and two unidentified persons had approached Zahira at her residence in Ekta Nagar in Baroda after the trial was over, according to Ms Sheikh’s statement.

"Raees Khan and his goons took us all away forcefully, telling us, "Chup rehna, yeh kaum ki baat hai", and transported us to Mumbai. I was kept at the residence of Teesta for about a month. I was locked in a room and was not allowed to meet anyone. My signatures were obtained on some papers typed in English that I couldn’t understand. I was told that those were the documents pertaining to the Best Bakery property in Baroda," Ms Sheikh said in her affidavit.

She also claimed that Ms Setalvad and Raees Khan threatened her to register false statements. ms Sheikh added, "They told me, ‘Kaum ka savaal hai, jhooth to bolna padega, aur jab case fir se chalega tab hum bolenge waise zoobani deni padegi’. I pleaded with them to relieve me as I did not want to get into these affairs and did not want to give false statements against innocent people framed in the case. What I had stated in the Baroda court was the truth."

She claimed that earlier she was kept at Ms Setalvad’s residence on Juhu Tara Road in Mumbai before being shifted to Versova. "I will lodge a police complaint against Teesta, Raees Khan and others involved," she said.

Ms Sheikh did not spare the Mumbai police either. "Wahan ki police bhi Teesta se mili hui hain. Teesta jo kehti hain, police wohi karti hai," she alleged.

She alleged that her brother Nafitullah’s wife Kailash, alias Heena, was also abducted by Ms Setalvad and forced to depose before the Mumbai court. "However, Heena was at her maternal home in Savli taluka, Baroda, when the Best Bakery incident had taken place and she was not a witness. Teesta forced her to make false statements making her an eyewitness," she said.

"I will now stay in Baroda with my family. I don’t want to get into all these things. I would not lie, it being the holy month of Ramzan. And I am a devout Muslim. However, I cannot inform about the case that is going on in the Mumbai court. I will speak before the court only when asked to depose," Ms Sheikh said.