Another Gujarat Riot Witness Exposes Conspiracy

[Guest guest]

Thursday, December 2, 2004 (Mumbai):

 

 

Key witness in the Best Bakery case, Zahira Shiekh's sister Saira

turned hostile today.

 

Like her brothers Nafitullah and Nasibullah, Saira did a U-turn from

her statement to the police two years ago and denied seeing anything

on the night when the bakery was attacked.

 

Saira told the court today that she heard rising noise outside the

bakery that night and like others in her family she too fled to the

terrace.

 

The bakery was set on fire and there was smoke all around. But Saira

said that she didn't know what happened thereafter.

 

Unlike her brothers, she admitted she was neither injured and nor

had she passed out.

 

Standard response

 

In fact, her standard response to most questions posed to her during

the testimony was "don't know".

 

When asked when her father passed away, Saira said she didn't know.

Her response to questions regarding her marriage, her escape from

the burning bakery and the people killed that night was also the

same.

 

She was asked how her sister Sabira died, but Saira's answer was

still "Don't know".

 

At this point, the judge warned her not to deliberately avoid giving

straight answers. Saira then admitted that her sister Sabira had

been killed in the riot.

 

As she continued being evasive, the judge warned her twice that

giving false testimony could land her in trouble.

 

"The judge felt she was deliberately fudging facts and feigning

ignorance," said Manjula Rao, Prosecutor.

 

In fact, Saira claimed that she had no idea of Zaheera's now famous

press conference in Baroda, where her sister had made her latest U-

turn.

 

Saira said she'd come to know of the Best Bakery retrial only

through television reports.

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