A fast track court here has adjourned till May 27 hearing in the Best Bakery case even as key witness Zahira Shaikh turned hostile.Fourteen people were allegedly burnt alive on March 1 last year in Best Bakery in the aftermath of the Godhra carnage and 21 people were arrested in this connection on the basis of Zahira’s statement to police immediately after the incident, Public Prosecutor Raghubir Pandya said yesterday. Constable may get money colleagues collected AHMEDABAD: Though it has been a year since the communal riots in Gujarat when 37-year-old traffic constable Hira Mulji Parmar was inflicted with 17 stab wounds and his colleagues had collected a voluntary fund for him, there is hope for him. On Wednesday, Commissioner of Police K.R. Kaushik asked Joint Commissioner of Police (Administration) V.V. Rabari to inquire into how much money had been collected and how much had been given to Parmar. And if there is any difference, he has to inquire about what has happened to the remaining amount. (ENS) During cross examination yesterday, Zahira, however, denied having seen any of the 21 people in the 15,000-strong mob that had set the Bakery on fire.‘‘I do not know what the 15,000-strong mob was doing in front of the bakery on the evening of March 1. As the mob gathered on the day of the incident, I ran upstairs with my family. I was very scared so I hid. I do not know what the mob was doing below,’’ Zahira mumbled in front of the court.After denial of her own statements to the police when Zahira was cross-questioned by public prosecutor Raghuveer Pandya, she gave a point-by-point rebuttal and called the police version false.She even denied that she had gone to the police to make a complaint. ‘‘No, I had not gone to make a complaint. Police had taken my statement and signature at SSG Hospital where I was getting treated after the incident,’’ Zahira said. ‘‘My statements of March 9 and April 1, 2002 to the police are false.’’When the judge asked her whether she recalled what had happened during that fateful night, she said it was dark and smoky so she could not recall who was in the mob. When it was specifically pointed out by the judge that she had claimed in her police complaint that the mob was carrying swords, kerosene cans and other sharp-edged weapons, Zahira said that the statement was false.After her deposition, Zahira was whisked away by local BJP MLA Madhu Srivastava. When asked why she had turned hostile, the MLA said Zahira would not speak. ‘‘It’s a matter of the life of 21 people (the accused). Please leave her alone,’’ he said.Later Zahira’s mother, Serunissa and younger brother Nafibullah also turned hostile, retracting the statements they had made earlier.The hearings that commenced on May 9 have already seen all the main witnesses turn hostile, with Zahira’s elder sister and brother — Sahera Sheikh and Nafitullah Sheikh respectively — retracting their statements during the first day of the hearings.The brother and sister duo denied identifying any person in the mob. Meanwhile, further hearings in the case have been adjourned till May 27.
