Two days after the Supreme court sentenced Zaheera Shaikh, prime witness in the Best Bakery case, to one year jail term for contempt of court, she surrendered before a sessions court in Mumbai on Friday and was sent to judicial custody till March 13.

Judge Abhay Thipsay, who had tried the Best Bakery case here, ordered her custody after she filed an application saying she was surrendering before the Mumbai court following the Supreme Court directive.

Zaheera pleaded that she may be kept in the custody of this court and did not want to go to any prison in Gujarat as she feared threat to her life. The court asked Mumbai police to take Zaheera into custody and produce her on March 13 to decide her application and go through the Supreme Court order sentencing her to jail.

Clad in a black burkha, Zaheera appeared before the court at 6:30 pm and met the registrar.

The judge, who had left for the day by that time, returned to the court and called prosecutor Manjula Rao. Zaheera was in the court for nearly two hours before she was taken away by police.

Emerging from the court, Rao told reporters that the court has decided not to disclose the prison where Zaheera would be lodged till March 13.

She said the court would hear Zaheera's application on March 13 after perusing the apex court order.

Soon after Zaheera appeared before the court, a large number of policemen were deployed in the court premises and mediapersons were not allowed to enter the building.

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