NEW DELHI, 5 November 2004 — The high-profile trial involving attacks on Muslims during riots in the Indian state of Gujarat in 2002 suffered a setback yesterday with the key witness failing to appear in court.
Zaheera Sheikh was due to depose before a court in Bombay yesterday but she failed to appear. Her former advocate Mihir Bhatt, however, appeared before the court and filed an application for withdrawal of the case.
Zaheera on Wednesday accused a prominent human rights activist of abducting her and forcing her to make false charges against the accused in the case.
A total of 21 men have been accused of attacking the Best Bakery belonging to Zaheera’s family in Gujarat town of Baroda during communal riots on May 1, 2002. They are accused of killing 14 of Zaheera’s family members and neighbors. Soon after the riots, Zaheera named the accused men and then backtracked during the first trial in Baroda, saying she was unable to recognize them.
India’s Supreme Court earlier this year ordered that the case be moved from Gujarat — ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party — and be retried in a special court in Bombay following an appeal by Zaheera.
But in a strange turn of events Wednesday, Zaheera appeared at a press conference called by local police in a Baroda hotel and said that her statements at the first trial were true and whatever she said later was under pressure from social activist Teesta Setalvad.
Police in Baroda said yesterday the Sheikh family had been shifted to an undisclosed location for safety reasons.
Muslims in Gujarat were shocked at the surprise recanting of statement by the key witness.
