People's Democracy

Zahira Acting Under Pressure Now: SAHMAT

The Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (SAHMAT) issued the following statement on November 4, 2004 on the recanting of her statement by Zahira Sheikh, prime witness in the Best Bakery case.

THE statement by Zahira Sheikh in Vadodra on November 3, changing her position in the Best Bakery retrial, is disturbing. It indicates that the sinister forces that are operating to deny justice to the victims of communal genocide in Gujarat are still very active. Zahira Sheikh’s statement that Teesta Setalvad was in any way coercing her, lacks total credibility. Even before the Citizens for Peace and Justice took up the Best Bakery case asking for retrial in the Supreme Court, Zahira Sheikh had approached the National Human Rights Commission and given a lengthy deposition before the commission officials. The eyewitness accounts of several other witnesses in the Best Bakery retrial at Mumbai also go to show that Zahira Sheikh is now acting under pressure. We are confident that the course of justice will not be derailed by this episode.