Women’s Groups express opposition to Zahira verdict

Women’s Groups express opposition to Zahira verdict and

demand action against the Real Culprits behind the Carnage in Gujarat 2002

Newsletter Jan – Apr 2006

While we, the members of women’s groups and concerned citizens in India, have welcomed the Supreme Court’s interventions in matters relating to the carnage in Gujarat, we are dismayed at its stringent verdict on 8th March, 2006 that pronounced one year imprisonment to Zahira Sheikh for having committed contempt of court. The orders to freeze Zahira’s accounts for three months may mean that she may be unable to pay the additional fine of Rs.50,000/- and face yet another year of imprisonment. Zahira is not a routine hostile witness; she is primarily an injured witness, who has been used as a pawn in the unfolding drama of state politics. While the court has punished Zahira, it has not passed similar stringent orders against politicians like Madhu Srivastava, who intimidated Zahira to change her testimony even though the fact has been brought on record. We are dismayed that those who systematically planned and implemented heinous crimes have gone scot free because the law enforcement system failed to implicate them with enough evidence. In the end, it is the vulnerable victim who has had to bear a criminal sentence.

Zahira may not have been perceived to be a “good victim” by many, but this does not mean that she should go to jail since she could not bear the multiple burdens of courage and truth placed solely upon her against impossible odds. Nor does her “perjury” erase the fact that she has survived unspeakable violence. Even though Zahira has repeatedly changed her statements, and therefore the Supreme Court has felt aggrieved, we must remember that she is a survivor first and foremost and her “hostility” to the prosecution is a product of surviving in a highly hostile and insecure environment. The interests of society lie in both upholding the dignity of the judiciary as well as providing substantive justice for survivors, such as Zahira. It is in the larger interest of society that we should ensure that the instigators of such terrible violence are punished in future and the fate of Zahira is not repeated, by providing safety and security to victims and witnesses who are in vulnerable positions like her. In the interests of substantive justice, we believe that the Supreme Court should take action against Madhu Srivastava and the political powers responsible for the violence in Gujarat in 2002, and that this intent be made public.

Saheli, Sama, Nirantar, Jagori and several individuals.