Vadodara Commissioner confident of nabbing Zaheera

Vadodara, Mar 10: The Vadodara Police is confident of tracking down and arresting Best Bakery prime witness Zaheera Sheikh who, earlier this week, was sentenced to one year SI by the Supreme Court for contempt of court.

Commissioner of Police Deepak Swaroop told UNI that Zaheera would be arrested in a couple of days. ''She is very much in Mumbai.' He said a team of crime branch sleuths sent to Mumbai to track down Zaheera and other family members, had served perjury notices to the star witness' elder sister Saheera and brother Nasibullah following a raid on their new Bhayander (East) residence last night.

After the Supreme Court order reached the office of the police commissioner yesterday, a special squad of the Detection Crime Branch (DCB) sleuths was sent to Mumbai with the arrest warrant against Zaheera and perjury notices earlier issued against her mother Sehrunissa, sister Saheera, and two brothers Nafitullah and Nasibullah by a Special Court in Mumbai.

Crime Branch sources said Saheera was at Bhayander when the Vadodara police team raided their house in the 'Varsha Apartments'.

Saheera and brother Nasibullah were served perjury notices and interrogated till late in the night about possible hideouts where Zaheera and her mother could be living.

The police commissioner said they firmly believed that Zaheera and her mother are hiding somewhere in the same locality. The entire area had been sealed off with the help of the Mumbai police and messages sent through their relatives to ask her to surrender, Mr Swaroop added.

Mr Swaroop said they had obtained documents relating to the reported death of Zaheera's ailing elder brother Nafitullah, who died at the Bhayander residence of his cousin Sanaullah Manihar on March 2 after a prolonged illness. Even as the body of the 26-year-old Nafitullah was buried at Bhayander on the following day in the presence of the entire Sheikh family, including Zaheera, the news of his death was only known on the day the apex court found Zaheera guilty of contempt court and sentenced her to one-year simple imprisonment for charging her statements time and again.

Police was looking for Nafitullah too as he was one of the five members of the Sheikh family accused of perjury, by the Mumbai court for turning hostile during the re-trial of the infamous Best bakery case. The special court had recently convicted nine of the 21 accused while issuing non-bailable warrant against four absconders.

Vadodara DCB inspector K B Jadeja, quoting Saheera, said Zaheera and her mother had left the Bhayander residence hours before the Supreme Court passed the conviction order against Zaheera on March 8, and both had not contacted the family since then.

The police had also interrogated Nasibullah, Saheera's husband Kalimuddin Sheikh and their cousin Sanaullah, who reportedly provided the shelter to the Sheikh family and medical care to Nafitullah till his death.

UNI

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