‘Kaanpte kaanpte jhooth bola tha court mein’

Announcing the verdict on June 27, the judge called the incident a ‘‘blot’’ on the city, slammed the police and the quality of the prosecution.

The Sunday Express met Sehrunissa, 50, at her house in the Ekta Nagar slum on the outskirts of the city. ‘‘Dehelte dehelte kaanpte kaanpte jhooth bola tha court mein,’’ she said. (Trembling with fear, we lied in court).

And she says she wasn’t the only one to do so. In fact, out of the 73 witnesses who deposed, as many as 41 turned hostile. ‘‘Just as we lied, others also lied. Everyone lied. Who knows why? They may also have been under pressure. The pressure must have come from where we used to stay (Hanuman Tekri). Nobody supported us.’’

She doesn’t name BJP MLA Madhu Shrivastava, who accompanied Zaheera on the day she turned hostile but keeps referring to a ‘‘daadhiwala aadmi’’(a bearded man).

Shrivastava, who sports a beard, admits to having supported the accused, he claims were all wrongly booked.

Contacted by The Sunday Express, Shrivastava denied any role, saying that it was ‘‘out of humanity,’’ that he had gone to court. ‘‘Zaheera had come to the court,’’ he said, ‘‘but I could not see her as she was in a burqa.’’

Asked whether he gave any assistance to the witnesses, he was cryptic: ‘‘They were left alone in time of need even by their own people. No one from their community or any leader counselled them. What could they have done when faced with a dozen lawyers? So they turned hostile.’’

But Sehrunissa said the pressure was intense: ‘‘Apne ko dhamki bhi aayi ki tum bole to tumko yahan aane nahin denge. Mar denge. (We received threats that if we speak we will not be allowed to come here. We would be killed).’’

She said some of the threats came through another critical witness in the case, a local scrap-dealer Lal Mohammed, who also turned hostile.

‘‘Lal Mohammed aa kar bola tha mere ko. Kayi bar doosro se bhi bulwaya usne. Usne phone par bhi dhamki di. Bola agar tum court mein jubani doge to marva denge tumko. Zaheera court tak nahin pahunch payegee. To hum apne aap kya karte. Dar ke maare jaban badal diye. (Lal Mohammad came here to tell us this. Several times he sent threats through others. He called up to threaten us as well. He warned that if we told the truth in court we would be killed and that Zaheera would not be allowed to reach court. In fear, we retracted our statements).’’

Asked why Lal Mohammed was threatening them, she said: ‘‘Kya pata, usko bhi dhamkaya hoga… (How do I know? Perhaps he was also threatened.’’) Lal Mohammed’s family lives in the same slum cluster near Sehrunissa’s house. His house too was burnt during the riots.

His daughter told The Sunday Express today that her father was away, there are reports that he is in Pune, ever since he testified in court. Asked about the speculation that witnesses were paid to turn hostile, Sehrunissa said: ‘‘What do people think and say? Some say we took 25 lakh, some say 12 lakh, but I did not get even a lakh.’’

When it was pointed out that it was because of their turning hostile that the accused got away, she said: ‘‘Chhoot gaye to mein kya kar sakti hoon usme (What can I do if they went free?)’’

On being told about an NHRC team arriving from Delhi, which might have the case re-opened and re-investigated, she said she would tell the truth — if supported by her people. ‘‘Yehi jubani denge jo pehle wali hai…ki inhone hi kiya hai…hamara saath denge to…nahin to itne jan chootenge to maar nahin dalenge humko. (I will depose as I did in my original statement if my people support me. Otherwise, if so many people are acquitted, they will kill me),’’ she said.

Sehrunissa said that on the day of her deposition, the presence of a large number of goons, including the daadiwala aadmi (reference to Shrivastava) was intimidating. ‘‘Lots of people were there, some signalling at us with their eyes. I put my head down and deposed. After all, one is afraid for one’s life. The bearded man was also there. They all stood there staring,’’ she said.