The Hindu : National : Zahira's flip-flop continues

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Friday, Dec 24, 2004

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National

Zahira's flip-flop continues

By Our Special Correspondent

MUMBAI, DEC. 23. Zahira Sheikh today denied she told the court yesterday that she could read and write Gujarati properly. The statement assumes significance in the light of a document, a letter supposedly written by her, which the prosecution asked her to read. Zahira said the document was not in her handwriting and she could not read or write Gujarati.

Yesterday, she had said that she could read and write Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, Parsi and Sanskrit. Manjula Rao, special public prosecutor, then asked her if the court had incorrectly recorded her statement. Zahira, in reply, first said that whatever the court had recorded was correct. Finally, she said the portion where she had said she could read and write Gujarati was not correctly recorded. Abhay Thipsay, Additional Sessions Judge, asked her if she was saying this because she could not read and write Gujarati properly, to which she evaded a reply.

Mr. Thipsay said that she was purposely not answering the question and that she should be detained till she gave an answer. But the question was explained to her again in Hindi and she said that the court had recorded her statement yesterday correctly but she actually could not read and write Gujarati properly.

`I read slowly'

She said the language she best knew was Hindi but she usually signed in Gujarati. She admitted that yesterday when Ms. Rao had asked her to read aloud certain portions of an affidavit in Gujarati, she had read the same. Zahira first said that at that time she did tell the court that could not read and write Gujarati properly. But she later admitted she had not done so. But she said she had read slowly.

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