Zaheera brother to cops: in prosecutor’s presence, MLA Madhu told me what to say in court

The police team is in Mumbai to record the statements of Zaheera and her family members in connection with investigations into threats made to them during the trial in Gujarat. The case is up for retrial in Mumbai, following a Supreme Court directive.

While public prosecutor Raghuvir Pandya refused to comment on Nafitullah’s statement, defence lawyers Praveen Thakkar and Shailesh Patel said the charges were fabricated.

In his statement, Nafitullah told the police that when he went to court with his eldest sister Saira Shaikh, Madhu took him to the lawyer’s room.

‘‘There were three people, Public Prosecutor Raghuvir Pandya, defence lawyer Praveen Thakkar and another lawyer Shailesh Patel. In their presence, Madhu told me, ‘These are all our lawyers…all you have to say is ‘Yes, Yes’ and shake your head. If you don’t understand anything, just bend your head. When they ask if these are the accused, just say ‘no.’ Say there was a lot of smoke and we could see nothing’.’’

According to Nafitullah, much before the trial began in April 2003, he was visited several times at his Ektangar house by two persons—Rehmatullah and Lal Mohammed.

‘‘The two told me that my family will be killed and there will be no one left if we testified in court against the accused who are all Madhu and Bhattu’s (Madhu’s brother and Congressman Chandrakant Srivastav) men. This frightened my family,’’ said Nafitullah.

‘‘After the first summons for my eldest sister Saira Shaikh to appear in the court was received, Rehmatullah and Lal Mohammed took me to a hotel near Alpana Theatre where Madhu and Bhattu were already present with their henchmen,’’ he said.

‘‘Madhu said ‘the accused are all our men. If you give evidence against them, none of you will survive. I will be in court to see what evidence do you give’,’’ Nafitullah told police.

‘‘It was after this meeting that I received threats on my mobile from Madhu Srivastava’s mobile number 9825060542,’’ he said.

‘‘The first time when he called and I asked who he was, he said he was Madhu and asked ‘have you understood what I said, or not? In two days, the court appearance is scheduled and I will be there’,’’ Nafitullah said, adding that he called back to confirm his identity.

Nafitullah alleged that Madhu threatened Saira again before taking her to the witness box.

‘‘Saira must have been inside the court room for only five minutes. The judge asked hardly three questions after the oath. All the while Madhu Srivastava was standing staring at us in the courtroom,’’ said Nafitullah.

‘‘Once Saira stepped down, Madhu walked up to Public Prosecutor Raghuvir Pandya, pointed to me and said, ‘Isko bhi le lo’,’’ Nafitullah told the police. He said there was no summons for him that day but his evidence was also recorded in the same way as Saira’s.

Nafitullah said that after this, Zahira received threatening calls on his mobile three to four times.

Ten days later when his mother, brother and Zaheera’s testimony was to be given, Madhu was again in the courtroom, said Nafitullah. ‘‘He took all four of us inside the lawyer’s cabin and in the presence of the same three lawyers, Zaheera and my family were warned against speaking up against the accused,’’ said Nafitullah.

‘‘Then Madhu told us to go to our village for a few days which we did. We returned around June 29, 2003 and then came to Mumbai,’’ he said.

When asked whether he had made calls to Madhu from his mobile, he said he had only returned a call once.

‘‘But printouts of Nafitullah’s phone collected by the police indicate that as many as eight- calls were made from his cellphone to Madhu and the latter made just one call to Nafitullah,’’ said Police Commissioner Sudhir Sinha.

Sinha said that the police team was unable to meet Zaheera and her mother in Mumbai.