(Gulf News
05/25/2006)
The struggle still goes on, says Setalvad
By Nilima Pathak, Correspondent
New Delhi: It was a fight between a woman and a powerful state government. But since the woman happened to be Teesta Setalvad, she won.
The case involves an incident on the night of March 1, 2002, when an armed mob attacked Best Bakery in the Hanuman Tekri area of Vadodara, Gujarat, setting it ablaze and killing 12 people.
Zahira Shaikh witnessed the burning of the bakery in which her sister, uncle and other relatives died. Some workers in the bakery were also killed by the mob. Twenty-one people were arrested in connection with the crime.
Teesta Setalvad, a resident of Mumbai, co-edited the journal Communalism Combat with her husband, Javed Anand after the Mumbai riots in 1992-93 to create a voice against religious hatred.
She started the forum, Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), after the Gujarat riots and while taking the statements from victims to prepare a report on the riots, Teesta met Zahira.
A year later, the fast-track court released all the accused, as most witnesses, including Zahira, turned hostile. Zahira later told Teesta she was forced to lie in court because of threats from local activists close to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
At the behest of CJP, the Supreme Court transferred the case to Mumbai and ordered a re-trial. Although Zahira and her family once again turned hostile during the re-trial, the testimony of other witnesses resulted in the sentencing of five of the accused to life terms.
Gulf News talks to Teesta Setalvad, the Mumbai-based social activist.
GULF NEWS: You proved that an individual could take on the system.
TEESTA SETALVAD: To some extent, yes. But the real success will come if we can effect a long term reform in the criminal justice system, where cases, especially criminal, are heard in a time bound manner. Also, there is a need for radical police reform and a viable witness programme.
During the Best Bakery case you were receiving threats and were given police protection. What is the situation now?
The threats continue, intermittently, and the protection is there from the Central Industrial Security Force. It is an unfortunate aspect of the kind of work we do.
You made legal history as it was the first time in the country that a case related to communal violence was transferred from one state to the other.
Yes, and there was a deep-rooted satisfaction when such a judgment came, first for re-trial from the Supreme Court and then the re-trial verdict. And both came under such heavy odds. Every effort was made to discredit the struggle for justice and personally vilify and threaten me. But things worked out in the end. We hope that this will be a precedent for the future.
What was your reaction when Zahira, for whom you had been fighting against the system, made allegations against you?
I was deeply pained and shocked. But certainly not defeated. I felt that I would now have to go through the real cost of engaging with the system and challenging the ideologically corrupt who are unfortunately also politically powerful.
Did you try to first make her see sense when she sought a probe into your bank accounts saying you and your husband ran a racket to collect money and that you weren't running any NGO?
Once Zahira had returned to Vadodara and held her press conference, obviously under Gujarat state patronage, she was given commando level protection by the same state that was the prosecution in this case.
Understandably, there was no opportunity to contact her then. But for a few weeks before, when I could sense things were going wrong, I did my utmost to explain that what Zahira and her family were threatening was dangerous. It would take them down a path of self-destruction for temporary gains. Unfortunately, her mother, who has not visited Zahira in judicial custody, and her elder brother, who is no more, were not ready to listen.
Do you think a trend has started now witnesses turning hostile?
It has been a disturbing trend in our system for some years now. But what is unusual and unique in this case is how hostile witnesses were simply not interested in the limited purpose of not identifying the accused but going much further. They were in collusion with the defence and trying to discredit the entire process of re-trial.
You accused Zahira of having accepted a bribe to change her stand. What is the latest on Zahira's sealed bank accounts? What has been discovered?
Her accounts have been sealed and she has received notices from the Income Tax authorities explaining non-filing of statements of accounts. She is serving her judicial sentence for contempt. The perjury case against her is pending. The powers-that-be in Gujarat have used her as a pawn for which she has to suffer. If she were to realise the extent to which the politicians in Gujarat have used her and confess the whole story, there may still be some reprieve. But the role of advocates in this whole case has been dismal and extremely unprofessional, which has misled Zahira.
Having got Zahira hauled up for perjury gave you a sense of achievement or was there a feeling of unhappiness for her?
The day the accused were convicted could have been Zahira's day when we would have been at her side. She showed courage momentarily in 2003 and her role in history will remain. The case will go down in history as Zahira Shaikh v/s State of Gujarat. I can say there was limited satisfaction but also regret that those behind Zahira, who used her, have gone scot-free. But the story of Zahira is not over yet. We hope she finds the strength to speak the truth again.