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 SC Committee Report
'Clean chit to Teesta/CJP'
'Zahira self-condemned liar'
(August 27, 2005)

 SC judgment
Re-trial of Best Bakery Case outside Gujarat
(April 12, 2004)

Case History

Supreme court     judgement (Mar 8, '06)

Mazgaon (Mumbai)   session court     judgement   (Full Judgement)    ( Feb 24, '06)

Mazgaon (Mumbai)   session court     judgement  (Feb 24, '06)

SC Judgement: transfer   and  retrial in Mumbai     (April 12, '04)

SC order expunging   remarks against   Teesta, Mihir

Gujarat HC order   Dec. 26, '03/Jan 12, '04

CJP and Zahira file   SLP in SC (Aug. 8, '03)

Zahira/CJP press     conference in Mumbai   (July 7, '03)

Sessions Court   Judgement, Vadodara   (June 27, '03)

Crime Against
Humanity

Gujarat Riots
 Concerned Citizens Tribunal Report

Crime Against
Humanity
( Abridged Version)

Genocide:
Gujarat 2002

BEST BAKERY CASE: DATELINE

• March 8, 2006: Supreme Court judgement

• February 24, 2006: Judge Abhay Thipsay delivers his verdict in the Best Bakery re-trial case (Full Judgement)

• October 24, 2005: New Delhi: The Supreme Court issues notice to 11 persons, including Gujarat BJP MLA Madhu Srivastava, referred to in the report submitted by the committee that probed the veracity of the statements made by Zahira Sheikh, key witness in the Best Bakery case.

• August 27, 2005: The SC enquiry committee headed by Supreme Court Registrar-General B.M. Gupta submits its report. The same is released by the SC on August 29. The report gives a clean chit to Teesta/CJP, calls Zahira Sheikh "a self-condemned liar whose statements alone cannot be safely accepted" and concludes that she and her family were likely to have been induced to turn hostile in the case. Needle of suspicion points to BJP MLA Madhu Srivastava.

• January 10, 2005: Supreme Court appoints a committee headed by the Registrar of the apex court and to be assisted by a senior IPS official in response to Teesta’s November 6, 2004 application for a high level probe into Zahira’s fresh turnaround.  

• December 22, 2004: Tehelka publishes the outcome of its sting operation with BJP MLA from Vadodara and others shown revealing they paid Zahira Shaikh and her family Rs. 18 lakhs to recant before the court.

• November 10, 2004: In a move to foil any attempt by the Gujarat police to arrest her, Teesta moves Mumbai High Court for anticipatory bail. The same is granted.

• November 6, 2004: Teesta Setalvad files an application in the Supreme Court seeking a CBI probe into why the prime witness in the case has changed her testimony. She questions Zaheera Sheikh's change in testimony and asks for a thorough probe by CBI into the about turn made by the witness.

• November 4, 2004: Zahira, who has been moved to Ahmedabad under heavy security cover provided by the Gujarat government, fails to appear before Judge Thipsay’s court in Mumbai.

• November 3, 2004: Key eyewitness Zahira Sheikh, retracts her statements yet again. At a press conference held in Vadodara, just a day before she was summoned to appear before Judge Thipsay in the Mumbai court, and with the full backing of the Gujarat administration and police, she claims she was forced to level false charges against the 21 accused as there was a "threat to her life." She accuses the Teesta Setalvad, secretary CJP and her "accomplices" of having "kidnapped" her and her brother from Vadodara. Alleges they were taken to Mumbai "at the edge of a knife" and kept in "solitary confinement" for seven months.

“I am shocked but not defeated,” says Teesta denying all the allegations as totally baseless.

• October 27, 2004: First prosecution witness deposes before special trial court, Mumbai.  

·    October 4, 2004:  Re-Trial begins 

·    September 22, 2004; Charges Framed in Judge Thipsay’s Court, Sewri, Mumbai.

·    September 9, 2004:  Nafitullah shaikh record statement on Threats and Intimidation before Vadodara Police

·    April 12 2004: Supreme Court Division bench judgement comprising of Justice Doraiswamy Raju & Justice Arijit Pasayat order retrial of Best Bakery case outside Gujarat, in Maharashtra. Remarks against Teesta Setalvad passed by Gujarat High Court are expunged.

·    March  23,-24 2004, Arguments on Special Leave Petition in an appeal against High Court order filed by witness and Citizens for Justice and Peace

·    Zahira Shaikh records statement on Threats and Intimidation in Vadodara before Mumbai Police.

·    January 12, 2004. The detailed reasoning of the Judges were detailed in a 90 page judgement jusytifying the acquittal. The bench comprising of Justice BJ Sethna and  Justice JR Vora observed that a retrial could not be ordered because the prosecution had failed to produce proper evidence. It pointed out that deputy commissioner of police and investigating officers had failed to discharge their duties since they did not record key witness Zahira’s FIR at the place of incident. Referring to the submission by Advocate General SN Sehlat that most witnesses turned hostile under threat, the bench observed that “there may be more than one reason for the witnesses from resiling from their so called statements made before the police and that there is nothing to show that the witnesses ever made the so-called statements.”  Moreover the Judges also passed specific remarks against Teesta Setalvad for carrying out a parallel investigation. 

·    December 26, 2003 – The appeal by the Gujarat government challenging the acquittal of the accused by the trial court was dismissed by the Gujarat High Court.

·    November 21, 2003. Supreme Court stays all pending major trials including Godhra

·    October 17, 2003. Two affidavits were filed by Teesta Setalvad of the NGO Citizens for Justice and Peace before the Supreme Court. These pointed out the need for retrial and for shifting the trial outside the state. Senior Council Shanti Bhushan appeared on behalf of the citizens group. NGO. The astounding facts about riot stricken Gujarat contained in the affidavits made Harish Salve point these out to the court.

·    October 9, 2003 – During the hearing on October 9, the SC appointed senior counsel and former solicitor general of India, Harish Salve, as amicus curae to assist the court on the points that had arisen in the case.

·    August 8, 2003. Zahira Shaikh and the Citizens for Justice and Peace also file an SLP accompanied by affidavits of key witnesses recording the facts that is listed along with the NHRC’s SLP.

·   August 7, 2003 -A day before the Supreme Court was to hear the NHRC’S petition, the Gujarat state government (prodded by the Supreme Court), filed an appeal before the Gujarat High Court challenging the acquittal of the accused. The appeal did not ask for re-trial.

·    August 1, 2003–The National Human Rights Commission filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) under Article 136 of the Constitution of India in the Supreme Court. The NHRC requested the SC to set aside the judgment of the trial court and for further investigation of the case by an independent agency. Also a re-trial of the case in a court located outside the State of Gujarat.

·    July 11, 2003 – Zahira gave a statement on oath before a full bench of the NHRC in the presence of Teesta Setalvad, Secretary, CJP about how she was forced to retract her statements in court. She named those who had threatened her and her family to pressure her to retract her statement.

·    July 7, 2003. CJP holds press conference for Zahira in Mumbai. About a month and a half after she turned hostile in court, Zahira and her family approached the Citizen’s for Justice and Peace, a citizens group committed tot he lagal battle for justice to victims of mass crimes n NGO in Mumbai for legal aid to ask for a re-trial.

·    June 27, 2003 – Additional sessions judge H U Mahida of the Vadodara fast track court acquitted  all the 21 accused in the case who were named by key witness Zahira Sheikh in her statements before the police, the NHRC and the Concerned Citizens Tribunal – Crimes Against Humanity, 2002.

·    May 17, 2003 – Zahira turned hostile under pressure. The same day her mother Sherunissa and younger brother Naseebullah also depose and also deny  facts. She allegedly received threats from various sources including a local scrap dealer Lal Mohammed who was also a witness in the case and later retracted his statement. On the day of Zahira’s court appearance the local BJP MLA Madhu Shrivastava was present in the court accompanied her to court. This is perceived as a tactic of intimidation. 

·    May 7, 2003. Brother of Zahira, Nafitullah and sister Saira retract their statements in court.

·    March 2, 2002-- Zahira recorded a statement at the site of the incident and thereafter continued at the hospital where the injured had been admitted filed an FIR before the police on March 2, 2003 naming the accused. She also made a full statement before the chairperson of the NHRC when they visited Gujarat after the riots on March 22 21, 2003.

·    Fifty-year-old Sehrunissa Sheikh, wife of the bakery owner Nafitullah Habibullah Shaikh eldest son of bakery owner Habibullah Shaikh and 18 year old Zahira Sheikh, her daughter, were the key witnesses. When the occupants of the building called the police for help a police van arrived about an hour and half later. But it drove past the bakery and did nothing to stop the mob.A policeman got off the van and even incited the mob.The attack intensified after the police van left. Zahira’s sister Shabira, her mama, and 12 others including four small children of the neighbourswho had taken shelter there. mama’s twins were burnt alive by the mob. Two of her brothers were burnt alive, Two of her brothers others were tied up and torched but survived the attack. Her chacha’s entire family was killed. Two bodies could not be found. The stomachs of the three Hindu workers were slit. Two Nine of the 14 people killed in the massacre belonged to the Sheikh family.

·        March 1, 2002 – Two days after the Godhra carnage, a mob attacked Best Bakery in the Hanuman Tekri area of Vadodara. Hanuman Tekri is a poor, lower middle-class neighbourhood. Predominantly Hindu, very few Muslim families live here.  The mob looted and burnt the bakery, killing 14 people in a period of 12 hours. The mob targeted the Muslims inside including the Sheikh family which ran the bakery. Three Hindu workers who worked at the bakery were also killed.