INDIA: Calls for Witness Protection Grow as Pogrom Survivor Turns Hostile

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Nov 8 2004 (IPS) - Human rights activists are calling for a better witness protection programme after a key survivor of the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in western Gujarat turned hostile and accused a leading voluntary agency of trying to coerce her into making statements.

Zahira Sheikh – who saved herself from mobs that set ablaze the bakery her family owned in Ahmedabad city and murdered her sister, uncle, three cousins and seven other Muslims – is the best-known face of what is undoubtedly India’s worst communal riot since the country was partitioned in 1947 into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu-majority India.

At least 2,000 people were killed and tens of thousands driven from their homes and businesses in the ensuing violence. Human rights organisations and the statutory National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) have accused the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, which rules the state, of turning a blind eye to the killings.

On Nov. 3, Sheikh, a key witness for the prosecution against 21 people accused of attacking the bakery, suddenly turned against the well-respected, Mumbai-based Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) and accused it of compelling her to testify at ”knife-point.”

But human rights activists find it hard to fathom her sudden changes of stance – which often vacillated between the prosecution and defence.

In May 2003, based on her statements, a fast-track court in Gujarat dealing with the pogrom had acquitted all the accused but a month later Sheikh turned up in Mumbai city and told press reporters that she had testified under constant threats from pro-Hindu organisations affiliated to the BJP.

Based on appeals made on her behalf by the CJP, the Supreme Court ordered the transfer of the ‘Best Bakery Case’ out of Gujarat to courts in neighbouring Maharashtra state – a stronghold of the Congress party that swears by secularism and, since May, leads India’s government.

Speaking to IPS, Shabnam Hashmi, leading rights campaigner and leader of the pro- secular, voluntary group ‘Anhad’ said Sheikh’s latest volte-face was the result of ”poor witness protection in the legal system of the country.”

”It is time to seriously consider federal protection to investigate mass crimes where investigation by local police may be wanting,” said Prashan Bhushan, a Supreme Court advocate and well-known rights activist.

Already India’s Law Commission, charged with formulating reform measures, has called for the enactment of comprehensive legislation for witness protection and the introduction of special procedures to ensure anonymity for witnesses as well as rights for the accused.

The Law Commission, which is yet to come up with a draft bill for the consideration of Parliament, has also called for physical protection of witnesses as well.

Meanwhile, Sheikh cannot complain of lack of protection. The same Gujarat police who failed to act during the pogrom escorted her to the press briefing where she denounced the CJP and its leader, the feisty Teesta Setalvad, before secreting her away to an undisclosed place.

On Sunday, according to news reports, Sheikh’s Muslim neighbours in Baroda’s Ekta Nagar burned her effigy and described her as a traitor and a blot on the entire community especially since her stand could damage more than 15 other cases relating to the Gujarat riots filed by the CJP.

Those cases include that of Bilkis Banoo and Rehanabibi, key witnesses in another case where 27 people were burnt alive near the town of Anand by mobs seeking revenge for the torching of a train carrying Hindu pilgrims at Godhra station on Feb 27, 2002 resulting in 59 deaths.

On Saturday Setalvad petitioned the Supreme Court to demand a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the circumstances that led to Sheikh’s Nov. 3 statements to reporters – while under escort by the Gujarat police.

What irked Setalvad most was Sheikh’s statement that she preferred the Best Bakery trial to be conducted in Gujarat rather than in Mumbai as ordered by the Supreme Court. In August, the Supreme Court ticked off the Gujarat government prosecutor for opposing warrants against the accused to appear in court for cross-examination.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has reacted to the dramatic volte-face by Sheikh by taking a swipe against human rights organisations. A day after Sheikh made her statements Modi said publicly that it was to ”re-examine the role of voluntary agencies in society.”

But rights activists believe that Modi’s government may have encouraged Sheikh to denounce the CJP with blandishments and threats. ”The police must have been harassing and torturing her relatives,” said Bhushan.

On Monday the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), another statutory body, said it has received a complaint from Sheikh saying that she was being harassed by Setalvad and the CJP an was seeking its help in protecting her as a member of a minority community.

”We have received a complaint from Zahira Sheikh in which she has written about her helplessness and we have taken cognizance of it,” said Tarlochan Singh, Chairman of the NCM.

The bizarre turn of events has elicited comments from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who told Indian reporters accompanying him to The Hague for the 5th India-European Union Summit, on Monday, that it was a matter ”people should ponder and reflect.”

”We need to examine the system of criminal investigation in the country as well as the prosecution system,” Singh was quoted as saying.

When Singh, a former World Bank economist, took over as prime minister in May he made a solemn pledge that under his rule communal violence like the kind that occurred in Gujarat would not occur, again, in the country.

Political analysts believe that the BJP lost the elections because of its failure to take timely measures to control the riots in Gujarat and bring the culprits to justice, including Modi.