Missing girl and the jubilant man

Hers was the face of the Best Bakery case. But Zaheera Shaikh, the main complainant who later turned hostile, was absent when the verdict was delivered.

It was her statement that led to the arrest of 21 accused from the Hanuman Tekri area. But ever since she turned hostile and told the court on May 17 that she hadn’t seen anything or known anything about the incident, she has been missing. That day, it was Madhu Shrivastava, the BJP MLA from Waghodia, who had escorted her to court.

According to latest reports, Zaheera has got married. Her younger brother Nafibullah Shaikh, known as Raju, still lives in Vadodara, in the Ektanagar area to which the family had moved after the carnage. All he says is that Zaheera has married a cousin and is now in Delhi.

For the minute or so he spoke to this newspaper, Raju was evasive and even aggressive. He just said: ‘‘With BJP in power, this was to happen.’’ Asked why he and his sister turned hostile, he had no answers.

Zahira’s eldest sister Sahira, who lives in a slum not far from Ektanagar, says that although she was not there when Best Bakery was burned, she felt bad that the killers of her sister Sabira and other relatives were going free. ‘‘Hamein to bahut kharab lag raha hai,’’ she said.

‘‘I accompanied her that day only because she received threats. I don’t know anything about her, ’’ says Madhu Shrivastava, who has been visiting the court ever since the trial began.

With Friday’s acquittal of all 21 accused, their families are all praise for him and grateful for what he has done for them.

But for him innocents would not have got justice, they say. For the MLA with the Robinhood image, the verdict in this high-profile case could mark the beginning of a consolidation of position within the BJP.

Though it has always been evident which side Shrivastava was on, at one point he took pains to clarify he was not ‘‘fighting on the side of Zaheera’’. He said he only accompanied her because she was under threat from anti-social elements, and even kept her away from the media.

Shrivastava began his political career as a councillor from the Waghodia area. By settling the Hanuman Tekri slum— where many are from his native Uttar Pradesh — he created a base for himself by fighting for them with officials and police.

He first won the Assembly elections in 1995 as an Independent. Realising his vote-gathering skills, the BJP gave him ticket, and he has twice won as the party’s candidate.

For all that, Shrivastava has been seen as a ‘‘bhaiyya’’ from Uttar Pradesh, an outsider. Despite the impressive winning margins, Shrivastava hasn’t got ministerial berth; nor is he in the reckoning for board or corporation chairmanship.

‘‘Despite the running around he has done he was seen as an outsider in the BJP circles. Now, he has got a chance to harp on the line that even he has fought for Gujarat’s mita,’’ said a local BJP leader. On his part, Shrivastava denies any political ambition.

As for being an ‘‘outsider’’ and reaping benefits, he says: ‘‘I’m a sun of the soil, and have always worked for the people without expectation.’’