The Hindu : Front Page : Zahira retracts statements

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 04, 2004

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Front Page

Zahira retracts statements

By Manas Dasgupta

VADODARA, NOV. 3. Giving a strange twist to the Best Bakery case, the key eyewitness, Zahira Sheikh, today retracted her statements before a Mumbai court. She claimed that she was forced to level false charges against the 21 accused as there was a "threat to her life." She made the statements at a hurriedly convened media conference here this evening.

Ms. Zahira accused the Mumbai-based social activist and convener of the Citizens for Justice and Peace, Teesta Setalvad, and her "accomplices" of having "kidnapped" her and her brother from Vadodara. They were taken to Mumbai "at the edge of a knife" and kept in "solitary confinement" for seven months, she alleged.

Affidavit filed

She claimed that she and her brother "managed" to "flee" from the "clutches" of Ms. Setalvad and her "four accomplices" and reached Vadodara late last night in a taxi. She filed a three-page affidavit before the Vadodara District Collector and Magistrate, Bhagyesh Jha, detailing her "confinement" and levelling charges against Ms. Setalvad.

Her statements before the Vadodara fast track court where she pleaded ignorance about all the accused were "genuine" and those before the Mumbai court retracting her Vadodara statement were "made under pressure," she claimed. Immediately after arriving in Vadodara, Ms. Zahira demanded police protection alleging "threat to her life" from Ms. Setalvad and her supporters. She was provided police guards who accompanied her to the media conference.

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