THE proceedings in Gujarat's fast-track court to try the cases relating to the communal pogrom, suffered a setback when Zahira Sheikh, the key witness in the BEST Bakery massacre in Vadodara, turned hostile. She had said that she had seen the burning of 12 people, many of them were her relatives, when the bakery, which was owned by her father, was set on fire by a mob on March 1 last year. Based on her detailed testimony and identification of the culprits, the police had charge-sheeted 21 persons.
But, in the court, Zahira went back on all the statements she had submitted to the police. She denied seeing the mob. She said that she was hiding in her house upstairs and did not see what was happening in the bakery below. Soon after her testimony, Zahira was escorted out of the courtroom by local Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Madhu Srivastava. She refused to speak to the press and did not return to her house for a few days.
Her family members too backtracked on the statements given to the police. Before Zahira testified in court, her elder sister Sahera and brother Nafitullah had turned hostile. After Zahira's court appearance, her mother Serunissa and younger brother Nafibullah retracted their earlier statements and said that they were unable to identify any of the mobsters.
Earlier, Zahira had spoken out against the accused and the first information report (FIR) was based on her complaint. On several occasions, she had provided the police with detailed testimonies against the accused. The police had taken her statement soon after the incident when she was admitted to hospital.
Human rights activists fear that several cases may go the way the BEST Bakery case has gone because witnesses are under immense pressure and fear the consequences of testifying against the accused, many of whom are politically powerful. "Very few riot accused are punished for this reason. Witnesses turn hostile because they have to live within the same community as the accused. They are either intimidated or paid off," says a criminal lawyer.
The communal violence cases have been fraught with problems from the start. Initially, the police refused to record statements. When they did, they did not include all the details mentioned by the witnesses. Moreover, the police filed group FIRs instead of separate cases for each complaint. Already, the police have closed around half of the 4,252 cases, citing lack of evidence.
Even when the remaining cases reach the courts, getting the witnesses to testify may be difficult. Many people fear that the BEST Bakery case may be an ominous sign.
Dionne BunshaCOMMents
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