BJP MLA Madhu Srivastava, accused of threatening star witness of the Best Bakery case Zaheera Sheikh, has termed all allegations levelled by Zaheera’s brother Nafitullah and his family members as a ‘‘bunch of lies’’ and ‘‘political conspiracy intended to tarnish my image’’. He has now announced he will take his battle to public even as he fights it out in court. Soon after his return from a sojourn abroad on Saturday, Srivastava said that he would hold a public meeting at Waghodia - now his constituency for a third term - on Sunday. Joint Commissioner to probe FIR Commissioner of Police Sudhir Sinha said Director General of Police K. Chakravarthy had appointed Joint Commissioner of Police K. Kumaraswamy to supervise the investigation into the First Information Report (FIR) registered against Srivastava and four others. Investigation is being conducted by Assistant Commissioner of Police R.J. Pargi. When asked if Srivastava will be arrested, Sinha said, ‘‘The law will take its own course.’’ - ENS He said he wanted to stay abroad for a few weeks more, but ‘‘I hastened my return because it was being discussed that I had prolonged my stay for fear of being arrested’’. He said he learnt of the case against him through Indian TV channels. After Srivastava had left for US and UK on an invitation from his NRI friends in the last week of September, Nafitullah, brother of Zaheera Shaikh, had given a statement to the police on the basis of which an FIR was registered against Srivastava and four others. In his statement, Nafitullah had alleged that the MLA, his cousin Chandrakant Srivastava alias Bhattu and two others — Rahmatullah and Lal Mohammed — had threatened him and his family in order to make them retract their statements. Stating that he had full faith in the legal system, the BJP legislator said he hopes to come out unscathed from court. But he threatened to initiate legal action against Nafitullah and Zaheera for levelling ‘‘baseless’’ allegations. Stating that the whole case had been orchestrated against him by his political enemies, he said Zaheera and his family members were being financed by people in Mumbai and Congressmen in Gujarat to soil his image and that of his party.
