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November 6, 2004 Press Release CITIZENS FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE APPROACHES APEX COURT FOR TOP-LEVEL INVESTIGATION INTO ZAHIRA SHAIKH'S RETRACTION On November 6, 2004, the Citizens for Justice and Peace and through it's secretary Teesta Setalvad filed an application in the Supreme Court asking for high-level probe (by the Hon Court or the CBI) into the circumstances behind which prime witness Zahira Shaikh retracted her statement at a press conference in which the Vadodara police that is the prosecuting agency in the retrial actually played a part in the events. The application was filed on November 6, 2004. The application states that, "It has been due to the intervention of this Hon'ble Court in the "Best Bakery Case". It was on the Citizens for Justice and Peace assurance of support that Zahira Shaikh and her family moved to Mumbai (Citizens for Justice and Peace has since been looking after all their financial and security needs) and in early July 2003, she told a hugely attended press conference why they were forced to lie before the court earlier and why they wanted a retrial of the Best Bakery Case outside Gujarat. The Secretary, Citizens for Justice and Peace escorted Zahira Shaikh to Delhi for a full-bench hearing before the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on July 11, 2003. It was thereafter that the NHRC decided on its rare step of filing an appeal in this Hon'ble Court endorsing Zahira's plea for a retrial outside Gujarat. Besides the NHRC and Citizens for Justice and Peace and Zahira Shaikh also filed a separate appeal before this Hon'ble Court, which has now been tagged with the NHRC petition." On November 3, 2004, there appeared in the print media as well as the Bakery" trial by the present applicant. It has also been reported in the newspapers that she has been threatened and there was a "threat to her life" among other allegations against the Citizens for Justice and Peace and its office bearers in particularly against the applicant. Hence in the interests of Justice and it the interests of free and fair trial the applicants have applied to the Supreme Court for directions that "an Independent Inquiry into the circumstances behind which Ms Zahira Shaikh has made unfortunate and utterly mala fide allegations against co-petitioner Teesta Setalvad, Secretary Citizens for Justice and Peace and hence put unto jeopardy the credibility of the justice system as a whole." The application also state that the Court should examined "the circumstances under which Ms. Shaikh called a press conference, the support she received in that time and the role of the Gujarat police in being silent spectators when their principal witness was going to turn hostile in a pending prosecution. Ideally, this application had to be moved the State of Gujarat, as it is their prosecution that has taken a major set back. Advocate Aparna Bhatt is the advocate for the applicant. The application states that apart from being shocked and pained at the baseless allegations made against her, where on of the main witnesses has hurled allegations against the applicant, the timing of these allegations, made after three witnesses had deposed and identified accused in the re-trial in Mumbai itself makes the whole episode sordid and suspect. The sudden retraction and baseless allegation made by a key witness in the "BEST Bakery" trial when three eye-witnesses who had never been given a chance to appear before the Vadodara court have deposed in the re-trial and actually identified accused gives remove for unfortunate suppositions and in fact casts a slur on Constitutional Bodies like the National Human Rights Commission and also the apex Court of the land, after the landmark in jugment of this Hon'ble Court in the present appeal. Teesta Setalvad Citizens for Justice and Peace Nirant, Juhu Tara Road, Juhu, Mumbai - 400049 e-mail: cjp02in@y... Courtesy:Harsh Kapoor/SACW www.sacw.net |
| << November10, 2004 - [India Thinkers Net]Another showdown for Hindutva |
November12, 2004 - [India Thinkers Net]Prosecutor Subverting Prosecution! >> |
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