Wednesday, December 22 2004 17:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Best Bakery case took a new and interesting turn today (Dec 22, 2004), as Tehelka.com announced in a press conference that Zaheera Sheikh, key witness in the Best bakery case, was bribed to turn hostile.

According to a press release by Tehelka, it was a month-long investigation, which revealed that Rs 18 lakh was paid to Zaheera by Madhu Srivastava, a BJP MLA and close associate of Narendra Modi.

The release also claimed that Madhu's brother, Chandrakant Batthoo Srivastava, a Congress corporator also confirmed the alleged fact.

According to the release, during the course of the investigation, Tehelka reporters managed to ensure their presence at meetings where Madhu Srivastava and Madhu's cousin Batthoo Srivastava, described in detail how Zaheera had been paid off. They did so while talking to a Vadodara corporator Nisar Bapu whose son has been convicted in a riot case. Their statements have been captured on camera and were shown by Tehelka at a press conference in Delhi today (December 22, 2004).

The portal claims that the conversations with Madhu and Batthoo took place separately and neither had any knowledge that the other had been approached adding further that their versions tally, confirming the authenticity of each version.

In the camera, both Madhu and Batthoo state that Zaheera and her family were the ones who took the initiative to approach Madhu for such a compromise. According to Madhu, "Hum koi bulane nahin gaye they us ko (we did not go to call her)". Asked how much he had paid her, Madhu said, "18 lakh Rupaih (Rs 18 lakh)".

Batthoo confirmed the sequence of events, "Madhu ke paas ghadi ghadi, ghadi ghadi akha khandan jawe. Ghadi, ghadi. Nahin, hamari bakery chaloo ho jayegi, ye ho jayegi. Tum humko kuch kara do, ye kara do. Saala kantal kar diya. Phir chhele Madhu ne jab decision liya, ki chalo bhai is ko paise dila do. To baat chali, to koi 25 lakh se chali. 18-20 lakh pe atki. To sab se paise ikhatte kar ke, 18 lakh rupaih poore cash diye usko

(The whole family would keep going to Madhu, time and again, time and again. Do this for us, do this, our bakery will get started again, this will happen. Drove us up the wall. Then finally Madhu took the decision that let us give her the money. First it started from Rs 25 lakh and got stuck at Rs 18 to 20 lakh. Then after collecting cash from everyone, she was given Rs 18 lakh in cash)."

Tehelka further undertook to go to Zaheera Sheikh's remote village in Uttar Pradesh, where her maternal grandmother Zareena Shahu, who knows nothing of the twists and turns in the case, has reconfirmed the version that Zaheera had first given the police.

Zareena was present when the mob attacked the Best Bakery and had returned to her native village Jhakiya, two months after the incident.

Speaking to Tehelka she related how she witnessed the death of her son Kausar at the hands of the mob on that day. Zaheera now claims Kausar was never even employed at the bakery. Notably, Zareena is not listed as a witness in the case.

The sting operation reveals extremely dangerous trends about our democracy and raises critical questions. Why do we still have a system where witnesses - even in such high profile cases - can be bought?

Will there never be any justice for riot-affected families? Will innocents continue to die in vain? Will money and muscle power always derail fairplay and justice? It is now for the Supreme Court to ensure that truth and justice prevail.