Jail for Best Bakery's Zaheera Sheikh

     New Delhi: Zaheera Sheikh, the prime witness in the Best Bakery case, has been awarded an imprisonment of a year and a fine of Rs.50,000 by the Supreme Court on charges of contempt of court. The Supreme Court gave the verdict after accepting the report of a high-powered committee, which said that Zaheera was a "self- condemned liar". A bench comprising Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice H K Sema had retained its judgement on January 4. Senior advocate Harish Salve was to give the reports to the Bench. Salve was assisting the court in the matter to take action against the persons accused by the committee.

     Zaheera on the other hand has raised her doubts and questioned the findings of the committee which accused her as "self- condemned liar". She has alleged that the inquiry was biased and truth was tampered with. Her counsel had said "the findings as recorded are oscillating and are not clear and specific." Though objections were filed, the Bench gave a clean chit to the two political leaders, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Madhu Srivastava and Congress corporate Bathu Srivastava. The Bench held that undesirable remarks were credited to them. It also said that there was no confirm evidence that proved them bribing Zaheera to change her statement. The committee on August 29 had given clean chit to social activist Teesta Setalavad of the charges of enticement levelled against her by the prime witness Zaheera. However, the court had referred the matter for inquiry on January 10 last year. In the latest incident, a trial court in Mumbai on February 24 gave averdict of life imprisonment to nine people accused in the case and issued notice to Zaheera together with her family members, whom the court accused of giving false statement. Besides Zaheera, the family members that were accused were her mother Sehrunissa, two brothers Nasibullah and Nafitullah and sister Sahira. The trial court has sought a reply from them as to why the accused should not be prosecuted for perjury by March 20. A total of 17 accused faced trial on charges of murdering 14 persons who had taken refuge in the Best bakery on Hanuman Tekdi at Vadodara on March 1, 2002, in the post-Godhra riots. Out of the total number of 21 accused four were absconding. Zaheera had moved the Supreme Court alleging that all the 21 accused in the case had been acquitted by the trial court in Gujarat as she had turned hostile due to threats issued to her. The apex court, on April 12, 2004 had asked a Mumbai court to conduct the retrial to give fair trial outside Gujarat to the accused. However, Zaheera retracted from her statement and had levelled charges of inducement against Teesta.

Sex workers take to streets in Delhi  (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: Thousands of sex workers took to streets in New Delhi on Wednesday demanding legislation to ensure labour status for their profession. The rally, marking international women's day, saw participation of over 5,000 women, men and transgenders engaged in sex-trade from 16 states. The sex workers, furious over government's move to amend the existing Immoral Trafficking Prevention (ITP) Act, which will allow a six-month jail and hefty financial penalty on those visiting brothels, demanded the scraping of the Act. "We are holding the rally to protest against the law. According to the law, we would not be arrested, but our customers will be penalized. This law would snatch our source of livelihood," said Girija, a sex worker from Bangalore. "Sex works should be de-criminalized, they should be considered as workers. Requisite regulations should be related to sex work should be put under labour law and not under the criminal Act," said Jena, an advisor to National Network of Sex Workers, a collective of hundreds of thousands of sex workers from across the country. Though prostitution is illegal in India, all major cities have "red light areas" where prostitutes can be hired for as little as two dollars. Most women with no social backup face extreme violence and exploitation at the hands of middlemen and police, who use them as easy extortion targets and their children, refused admission into schools and denied jobs fall prey to drugs and the girls forced to follow their mothers. Women's rights groups have been demanding a legislation to ensure labour status for the prostitutes for over nearly a decade, but to no avail. Estimates by voluntary groups show at least 600,000 minors are also employed in the profession and their number is said to be increasing by almost 10 percent every year.

No talaq through phone, Internet: AIMPLB (Go To Top)

     Bangalore: The Executive Committee of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has decided against talaq through Internet or phone. Announcing this here today after the meeting the All India General Secretary of the AIMPLB, Abdul Rehman Quereshi said that there is no question of Muslim law board considering talaq through phone or internet. For a question on the issue of fatwa as the issue is before the Supreme Court, the AIMPLB has decided to abide by the decision of the Supreme Court. The AIMPLB has welcomed the Centre to conduct a census of the Muslim's in the Indian Armed Forces. According to Abdul Rehman Quereshi, the executive committee also discussed issues related to Babri Masjid and reforming the Muslim's in obeying the shariot and the Islamic personal law under the Constitution of India. The Executive Committee of the AIMPLB is of the opinion that shariot and fatwa are the important fundamental rights under the Constitution of India.

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