The Hindu : What I said in court wasn't true: witness

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 08, 2003

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What I said in court wasn't true: witness

By Kalpana Sharma

MUMBAI JULY 7. In a dramatic reversal of her court testimony, Zahira Habibullah Shaikh, the 19-year-old girl who survived the night of March 1, 2003, when a mob attacked and killed 14 persons in Best Bakery, Vadodara in Gujarat, said today: "What I said in court was not true. I said it after pressure was put on me. In fact, I recognise all those who attacked us that night".

Her testimony to the contrary before the fast track court in Vadodara had led to the acquittal of all the 21 accused on June 27.

Ms. Shaikh told a press conference convened by the Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) here that she had asked the group to reopen her case and have it retried. Although she had testified to the National Human Rights Commission and many other groups last year about what happened on March 1, 2003, and she and the surviving members of her family had given more than half-a-dozen statements to police, when she appeared in the courtroom of the Sessions Judge H. U. Mahida on May 17 and was asked whether she recognised any of the accused, she said she did not.

`Threatened'

Asked why she had changed her stance now, Ms. Shaikh said, "I was accused of taking money. I could not stand being maligned. I want to reopen the case because we didn't get justice." She narrated how, ever since she received the summons from the Special Court, she had been threatened on her mobile phone and told that if she testified, her family would be killed and she would be killed on her way to court. She said that a BJP MLA was behind her when she entered the courtroom and alleged that he too had threatened her.

Ms. Shaikh said she had asked a number of local lawyers to help her but all of them demanded money, some as much as Rs. 4 lakhs. "No one was supporting us. In Gujarat, everyone is theirs, they want to suppress our case, they are all with them," she said, referring to the people she has accused. Advocate Mihir Desai said that the CJP had decided to take up the case and was considering a number of different strategies. "The judiciary is one institution in which there is still some faith. We want to exploit that," he said. The group, which has extended financial support to Ms. Shaikh and her family and ensured that they do not need to return to Vadodara, would not appeal against the Mahida judgment. Instead it would ask for a new trial ideally outside Gujarat. Even if it took place in Gujarat, they would ask for a Special Public Prosecutor.

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