New Delhi, March 29
Gujarat riots much debated Best Bakery case key witness Zahira Sheikh in her fresh affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, has tried to give a new twist to the case by seeking cross examination of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chairman, Mr Justice A S Anand by the apex court appointed committee probing the issue of her affidavit in original appeal on which fresh trial was ordered by the Court.
Zaheera in her affidavit contended that the Commission’s petition before the apex court was not based on her statement as recorded by the NHRC but that prepared by NGO activist Teesta Setalwad on her behalf, which was “different” from what she told the panel..
“I would like my lawyer to examine the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission in respect of the annexure, which forms part of the affidavit filed by (Commission’s Secretary) Ajit Bharihok,” Zaheera in her affidavit said.
Claiming that Bharihok, who filed the petition in the apex court seeking fresh probe in the Best Bakery case and transfer of it outside Gujarat, was not present when her oral statement was recorded by a three-member Bench of the NHRC, headed by its Chairman, Zaheera said that Teesta had presented her statement before the panel as was prepared by her at Mumbai.
The person who wrote her statement during the NHRC proceedings wrote what she had orally told the Commission and “it would be different from the statement which Teesta prepared in Mumbai”, she said.
Accusing Teesta of amassing money from foreign countries in the name of Gujarat riots, especially the Best Bakery case, Zaheera alleged that the NGO activist had “played a fraud on the (apex) Court” by becoming appellant number 2 along with her.
Zaheera filed the affidavit in reply to Court’s notice on Teesta’s application seeking probe into the circumstances under which the key witness had changed her statement in the Best Bakery case.
While submitting details of her bank account along with the affidavit as was sought by the apex court, Zaheera also sought probe into the accounts of Teesta alleging that she had received money from various foreign sources “by marketing her brand of Gujarat riots story nationally and internationally.”
