Zaheera questions NHRC in Best case

Questioning the veracity of a petition by the National Human Rights Commission on the Gujarat riots, Best Bakery key witness Zaheera Sheikh ...

Questioning the veracity of a petition by the National Human Rights Commission on the Gujarat riots, Best Bakery key witness Zaheera Sheikh has asked the Supreme Court-appointed probe committee for an opportunity to cross-examine the NHRC chief. She also called for a probe into the wealth of social activist Teesta Setalvad.

Zaheera filed an affidavit before the committee headed by registrar-general B.M. Gupta, who along with Kanwaljeet Deol, has been assigned the task of finding out the truth behind the alleged conflicting statements made by Zaheera and Setalvad.

It was based on the petitions of the NHRC and Setalvad that the apex court started monitoring the post-Godhra riots cases. Zaheera has alleged that her statements before the NHRC were doctored and placed before SC, which had set aside the acquittal of all 21 accused and ordered fresh trial in Mumbai.

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Zaheera said in her affidavit: ‘‘I was taken to the office of NHRC and made to say orally what Teesta had told me to say’’. She said her so-called statement produced by NHRC before the SC was not what she said before the Commission. ‘‘I would like my lawyer to examine the chairman of the NHRC in respect of her statement, which formed part of the affidavit filed on behalf of the human rights body’’.

‘‘Neither Teesta nor her husband is running any NGO called Communal Combat, which is a business venture of a company or firm known as Sabrang Publication…My lawyers tell me this is a device to avoid Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.”

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