People's Democracy

‘Zahira Self-Condemned Liar’

IN a serious dent to Best Bakery case key witness Zahira Sheikh’s credibility, a Supreme Court appointed committee on August 29 indicted her as a “self-condemned” liar prone to “inducements” to give “inconsistent” statements connected with the trial of the case.

“Looking into the circumstances of the case, I feel no hesitation to mention that Ms Zahira Sheikh is not a lady who speaks the truth. She has developed an image of a self-condemned liar whose statements alone can not safely be accepted,” said the report.

“She changed her stand three times during the trial of the case. Apart from that, during the inquiry proceedings, discrepancies appeared in her statements,” added the report. “Two important facts on which evidence has been produced before the inquiry were that BJP MLA Madhu Srivastava was present at the venue of the press conference and fired with his licensed firearm in the presence of the media. Secondly, during those days they telephoned Bharat Thakar, the brother of accused Sanjay Thakkar twice. These facts taken together imply that Zahira and family had come into contact with the same persons who had played a role in (her) turning hostile in the fast-track court,” said the report.

The accused had an interest in Zahira and her family changing their stand before the trial court and they might have contacted them at a crucial time. Inducement was the main motive for changing her stand, said the report.

A bench comprising justice Arijit Pasayat and justice H K Sema opened the sealed report and read out the main conclusions of the committee headed by B M Gupta, the registrar-general of the top court.

The court, on January 10 this year, had referred the matter for inquiry on being faced with the “flip-flop” of Zahira.