Zaheera Sheikh (), aka Zahira Sheikh, is the
key witness in India's
Best Bakery case. She is the daughter of the owner of the bakery involved in the Best Bakery case.
On March 1, 2002, 12 Muslims and 2 others were burnt alive in the premises of the bakery, "allegedly by a Hindu mob".
She has indicated her desire to contest elections for the
Gujarat elections if she was fielded by a political party.
In January
2005, the
Supreme Court of India ordered an inquiry into the repeated change of statement by Zaheera. In August 2005, a Supreme Court committee indicted Sheikh as a "self-condemned liar" falling to "inducements" by "certain persons" to give "inconsistent" statements during the trial of the case.
In March
2006, the
Supreme Court of India found her guilty of
perjury in the same case. She was sentenced to a year in prison and was also fined an amount equal to Rs. 50000 (approximately $1100). The court also instructed tax authorities to investigate her assets since the start of the infamous trial as she is widely suspected of having accepted numerous bribes to change her testimony in court. She was ordered to undergo her term in a
Mumbai prison.
The Indian newspaper, Tehelka, aired a secretly-filmed video in which the politician Madhu Srivastava is alleged to...
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