Gujarat police to talk to Zaheera, family in Mumbai

A police party led by Assistant Commissioner of Police R.J. Pargi will go to Mumbai early next month to record the statements of Best Bakery...

A police party led by Assistant Commissioner of Police R.J. Pargi will go to Mumbai early next month to record the statements of Best Bakery prime witness Zaheera Sheikh, her mother Sehrunnisa and her two brothers — Nafitullah and Nasibullah — in connection with the alleged threat to the family from BJP legislator Madhu Srivastava.

Zaheera, in an affidavit to the Supreme Court, had said she had changed her testimony during the trial due to threats by Srivastava. Besides, in October this year, Nafitullah had lodged an FIR with the Detection of Crime Branch levelling the same allegation against the MLA.

The police did not probe the allegation after Zaheera’s affidavit in the apex court, but Vadodara police swung into action after Nafitullah’s FIR. However, police could not go ahead with the investigation as Teesta Setalvad (with whom the Sheikh family is currently living in Mumbai) was not available to the police.

Story continues below this ad

Pargi said Setalvad has agreed to allow the police to talk to Zaheera and her family members in the first week of January. ‘‘I will reach Mumbai on January 1 to record the statements,’’ Pargi added.

In the FIR, Nafitullah has alleged that he had been taken by one Lal Mohammed to a hotel run by the MLA’s cousin, Chandrakant Srivastava alias Bhattu, when the court trial in the case was going on and was threatened.