Zaheera's sister-in-law arrested for bootlegging

Vadodara, Jan 14: The city police today arrested Heena, the sister-in-law of disgraced Best Bakery case key witness Zaheera Sheikh, under the Gujarat Prohibition Act after 19 bottles of IMFL and beer were seized from her Best Bakery residence.

Acting on a tip-off, police raided the double-storeyed bakery at Hanuman Tekri on the outskirts of the city and recovered Indian made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) worth Rs 1,300.

Heena, who was present in the house when police team raided the bakery, was arrested and charged under sections 66(b), 65(a) and 116(b) of the Gujarat Prohibition Act. She was then taken to the Panigate police station along with her two minor children, Sameer and Sabera, the police said.

Heena, the second wife of Zaheera's deceased elder brother Nafitullah Sheikh, was living with her two children in the bakery since November, 2004, after severing all ties with her in-laws.

Police sources said Heena had confessed to the crime, saying that she had procured the liquor bottles from a bootlegger in Chhotaudepur for the purpose of selling them in the black market during 'Uttarayan.' She will be produced in a local court in the evening.

Heena was earlier arrested in a theft case in June last year for allegedly keeping some stolen steel materials in the bakery.

Though she was later enlarged on bail, the co-accused, Bunty is still absconding. In the post-Godhra violence in Gujarat, 14 people were burnt alive in the Best Bakery by a mob on March 1, 2002. Though a Vadodara trial court acquitted all 21 accused for lack of evidence in June, 2003, nine of them were later sentenced to life imprisonment following a retrial of the case in a Mumbai special court in February, 2006.

Subsequently, Zaheera too was handed down a sentence of one year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 50,000 by the Supreme Court for her flip-flops.

UNI