Riot perjurer faces Mumbai jail

By Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Delhi

Zahira Sheikh will serve her sentence in Mumbai

An Indian court has ordered the main witness in a murder case stemming from 2002 riots in Gujarat to serve her sentence for perjury in a Mumbai jail.

India's Supreme Court had sentenced Zahira Sheikh to a year's imprisonment and fined her 50,000 rupees ($1,100).

Ms Sheikh was found guilty of lying about the murder of 12 Muslims and two others by a Hindu mob which set fire to the Best Bakery in the city of Baroda.

Last month nine people were sentenced to life imprisonment after a retrial.

They had been acquitted, along with 12 others, in the original trial after Ms Sheikh, who was the prosecution's main witness, retracted her evidence.

She claimed she had done so after being threatened by local politicians.

Hostile witness

Ms Sheikh testified again at the retrial but changed her evidence again, claiming that her lawyer, social activist Teesta Seetalvad, had coerced her into giving false statements.

Fourteen people were killed in the attack on the bakery

A committee set up by the Supreme Court said it believed she had been bribed to turn hostile in court.

The BBC's Monica Chadha in Mumbai (Bombay) says Ms Sheikh finally surrendered to the special court on 10 March after the Supreme Court found her guilty of perjury.

At the time she had asked the court to let her serve her sentence in the state of Maharashtra, whose capital is Mumbai.

She had said she feared for her life in neighbouring Gujarat and did not want to serve her sentence in one of its jails.

But Ms Sheikh recently claimed the Mumbai police were not treating her well and said she wanted to return to Gujarat.

On Wednesday the judge ruled she should serve her sentence in Mumbai.

At least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, died in the 2002 religious riots. The violence broke out after 60 Hindus were killed when a train was allegedly attacked in the town of Godhra by a Muslim mob.