Sunday, March 12 2006 11:39 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Zaheera Sheikh, prime witness in the Best Bakery case, who surrendered two days ago in keeping with a Supreme Court directive ordering her to undergo one year jail term for contempt of court, would be produced here tomorrow(Mar 13,2006) before a sessions court which would decide her plea for serving the sentence in a jail in Maharashtra.

Zaheera, while surrendering on March 10, had pleaded before the sessions court here that she should be kept in a jail in Maharashtra and not (not) in Gujarat as she apprehended a threat to her life.

Zaheera pleaded that she had confidence and faith in the Mumbai court which conducted her trial and hence she decided to surrender before it in keeping with the apex court order.

Remanding Zaheera to judicial custody, Judge Abhay Thipsay ordered Mumbai police to keep her in safe custody in a city jail and produce her on March 12 to decide her application on serving jail sentence in Maharashtra and not in Gujarat.

Before Zaheera surrendered she had gone into hiding from her relative's residence at suburban Bhayander in nearby Thane district following the apex court order.

The Supreme Court had sentenced Zaheera to one year jail term and fined her Rs 50,000 for her flip-flops in the Best Bakery trial and for changing her version frequently.

The Supreme Court severely reprimanded Zaheera for turning hostile during the trial and accepted the report of the high-powered inquiry committee, which had indicted her as a 'self-condemned liar.'

The apex court also observed that "This is a classic example of a case where evidence were tampered with and witnesses won over".