Court extends Zaheera's custody till Mar 16

Mumbai, Mar 13 (UNI) A local court today extended till March 16 the judicial custody of Zaheera Sheikh, prime witness in Vadodara's Best Bakery case, pending clarification from the Supreme Court on how the one year sentence for perjury has to be executed and also on her plea to undergo the sentence in Maharashtra instead of Gujarat.

Additional Session judge Abhay Thipsay said since the apex court order is not explicit as to how the sentence has to be executed, it is appropriate to seek directions from the Supreme Court. The judge said since Zaheera has requested that she should not be handed over to Gujarat police and instead allowed to undergo the sentence in Maharashtra, it would not be proper to hand her over to Gujarat police. Therefore, it would be appropriate to seek directions from Supreme Court as to the manner in which Zaheera should undergo her sentence, he added.

Before passing the order, Mr Thipsay granted in-camera audience to Zaheera for about two hours after she broke down when produced in the court. When she requested to be heard in his chambers, the judge ordered media persons and others to leave the court and spoke with her.

Mr Thipsay then sent Zaheera to the Bhoiwada police lock-up under judicial custody. She had surrendered before the court on March 10, two days after the Supreme Court sentenced her to a year's simple imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 for her flip-flops as a witness in the case.

After receiving copy of the apex court's ruling, the Sessions court is likely to take up Zaheera's application that she be not sent to Gujarat.

The city court, which retried the Best Bakery case on the direction of the Supreme court, in its verdict on February 24 had sentenced nine accused to life imprisonment and acquitted eight others for want of evidence.

The apex court in April, 2004, while ordering retrial outside Gujarat so that witnesses could depose without any fear, had quashed the Vadodara court's order acquitting all the 21 accused in the case. Seventeeen of these accused were arrested and brought to Mumbai for retrial, while the remaining four, still untraceable, had been declared absconders.

The Mumbai court has also issued notices to Zaheera and her family members to show cause why action should not be taken against them for perjury. The matter is pending and would be heard on March 20.

UNI PVN-VP SA RP KN1923