Zaheera Sheikh to be released this week

Mumbai, Mar 12 (UNI) Zaheera Sheikh, the prime witness-turned- accused in the Best Bakery case will be released from Nashik Jail this week.

Her counsel Umesh Deshpande confirmed the development to UNI here today but did not divulge the date for security reasons.

Mr Deshpande said, ''Zaheera has completed one-year imprisonment on March 9 and the Supreme Court has also waived the fine of Rs 50,000 considering peculiar circumstances of the case. Hence, she will be released any moment.'' Refusing to divulge the date of her release, Mr Deshpande said, ''My client has undergone lot of trauma and mental stress in the last one year after her imprisonment. She is, therefore, wary of any negative media attention.'' He said he visited the Nashik jail on Saturday and submitted a copy of Supreme Court's directive to waive off Zaheera's fine.

However, authorities there demanded the official copy, which he said he would submit in a day or two.

When asked about Sheikh's future plans, Deshpande said it would be decided only after Zaheera was released. But the jail authorities were impressed by her acumen in computers and dance.

On March 8 last year, a Supreme Court bench comprising of Justices Arijit Pasayat and H K Sema had found Zaheera guilty of turning hostile and sentenced her to one year's imprisonment, after a high- level committee appointed by the court verified the statements made by her before and after she turned hostile. In addition, the bench also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000, to be paid in two months, for producing false evidence. In the event of a default in paying the fine, she would be required to undergo another year of imprisonment, they said.

Later in her application before the Supreme Court, she prayed for a reduction in the sentence of the period of imprisonment she had already undergone and to exempt her from paying the fine as she had no means. She also submitted that on the day of riots in Gujarat on March 1, 2002, she was a minor (16 years) and a month earlier, her father had died leaving five children of tender age. And on March two, she lost her elder brother Nafitullah due to kidney failure and lack of medical aid. Her family was on the verge of starvation, she said.

Finally, the Supreme Court on March 7, this year, exactly a year after she was sentenced, waived off the fine and in its order said, ''Considering the peculiar circumstance of the case, the direction for payment of costs is waived.'' UNI