New Delhi: In the wake of criticism of her meeting with Best Bakery prime witness Zaheera Sheikh, NCW (National Commission for Women) Chairperson Poornima Advani today (Nov 23, 2004) clarified that her visit to Gujarat was a scheduled tour and said she has forwarded Zaheera's letter to the Bombay High Court hearing the case.

Spotlight: Godhra-Chilling stories of the victims

"There has been a lot of criticism of my meeting with Zaheera. Hence I would like to clarify that my visit to Gujarat was meant for gender profiling of the State and was fixed two months back," she told reporters in New Delhi.

She informed that her visit to Gujarat, a routine State visit of the Commission, was scheduled for Nov 10, 2004 and she received a letter on Nov 8, 2004 from Zaheera seeking a meeting with her.

"Although the case was sub-judice, I decided to meet her as it is our duty to hear out every woman who approaches us. I had a 45-minute long meeting with her in Gandhinagar, during which she accused Teesta Setalvad of confining her wrongfully for seven months," the NCW chairperson said.

Advani informed that she told Zaheera clearly that the matter was sub-judice and hence the NCW could not intervene in the case.

She further said that she has submitted Zaheera's one-page letter in Gujarati to her seeking the meeting to the Bombay High Court and a copy of it to the trial court hearing the case.

Setalvad, who is caught in a controversy in the Best Bakery case, had recently raised doubts over the meeting between Advani and Zaheera, saying it was part of an attempt to "manipulate" the story.