Zaheera146;s turnabout

For many outside the state, Gujarat 2002 was her story. A nation followed Zaheera Sheikh ever since she addressed the sensational press conference in Mumbai on July 7, 2003, in which she alleged she was intimidated into turning hostile in H.U. Mahida8217;s fast track court in Vadodara, leading to the blanket acquittal of all 21 accused in the gruesome killing of 14 people at the Best Bakery on March 1, 2002. We watched as her case was taken to the Supreme Court after the Gujarat HC dismissed her petition seeking to challenge the acquittal. We watched it become a turning point in the protracted struggle for justice as the apex court shifted it from Gujarat to Mumbai. And, somewhere along the way, we lost sight of Zaheera as the search for justice spread out into many stories.

As she re-emerges in Vadodara now, to tell us that the NGO which advocated her cause was really her tormentor, let8217;s remind ourselves of a few things. One, the Best Bakery trial itself has travelled ahead from the time Zaheera Sheikh became the prime reason for it to get another lease of life in Mumbai. Other eyewitnesses, too scared to speak out in Gujarat, have identified and deposed against the accused during the retrial in another state. Two, the search for justice for the victims in Gujarat has become a process that now encompasses the less high-profile cases as well. In another far-reaching order in August this year, the apex court directed the Modi government to set up a high-level team headed by the director general of police to review, one by one, the 2000 or so of the cases 8212; nearly half of the total number registered 8212; in which the police arbitrarily filed closure reports instead of chargesheets. The court put the onus on senior officials of the same force to explain why each case must not be investigated afresh.

But what about Zaheera Sheikh8217;s stunning recanting of the position she took in Mumbai in Vadodara? It matters. It must urgently lead us to discuss a witness protection programme. Recently, the Law Commission sought to initiate the process of drafting a law to protect witnesses by proposing some radical measures in a 330-page consultation paper posted on the commission8217;s website. The challenge of crafting such a programme for Indian conditions, that include a notoriously politicised police force, stares us in the face. Then, we need to debate the law promised by the UPA government, for dealing with cases of communal violence. What could be the role of special provisions, special investigative agencies, special courts, in situations where the state has been habitually known to collude in the crime and then thwart justice? The process famously set off by Zaheera Sheikh continues to challenge us to come up with a more serious, more imaginative response.