Zaheera Sheikh

Zaheera Sheikh (Gujarati: જ઼્આહીરા શેખ), 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.^{[citation needed]}

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. The sis-in-law of Zaheera claimed that Zaheera was lying.

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. 50,000 (approximately $1,000). 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.^{[citation needed]}

The Indian newspaper, Tehelka, aired a secretly-filmed video in which the politician Madhu Srivastava is alleged to have paid 1.8 million rupees ($36,000) to Zaheera. Both have denied giving or receiving the bribe.

The Majlis-e-Shura, an apex decision making body of Muslims in India, declared Zaheera an outcast after it learned of the Tehelka reports, and Zaheera's false statements. Islamic scholars denounced "lying" as against "the principles of Islam and Koran".

External links

• "Why did Zaheera Sheikh have to lie?" - rediff.com article dated July 8, 2003
• Zahira wants to contest elections The Hindu - Jun 20, 2007