BMW case: Lawyers collude, stung

STUNG AND STUNNED: A sting op exposes how lawyers joined hands to bail out Sanjeev Nanda.

      

Ads by Google

ibnlive.com is on mobile now. Read news, watch videos
be a Citizen Journalist. Log on to m.ibnlive.com NOW!

Related Stories

• Sanjeev Nanda gets breather in BMW case

• BMW case: HC rejects Sanjeev Nanda's bail plea

• Chronology of the BMW hit-and run case

Photogallery

Find us on Facebook | Join IBNLive community

Stay ahead with G-Talk Buddy | Click now!

  

New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Thursday dropped Public Prosecutor I U Khan from the high-profile BMW hit-and-run case a day after the nexus between him and defence lawyer RK Anand was exposed in a sting operation conducted by one of the witnesses Sunil Kulkarni.

Police have written to the Delhi Government recommending that Khan be dropped from the case. "We have suggested to the government to replace the public prosecutor in the BMW case," Police Commissioner K K Paul was quoted as saying.

Sources tell CNN-IBN that senior public prosecutor Rajeev Mohan is likely to replace Khan.

Police are also examining the veracity of the tape broadcast by a TV channel on Wednesday night allegedly showing Anand talking to Kulkarni about the case.

In 1999 six people were run over, allegedly by a BMW driven by young industrialist Sanjeev Nanda, grandson of a former Navy chief.

Kulkarni was a passerby who saw the accident and is the only witness not to have turned hostile.

On Wednesday, a TV sting exposed Khan colluding with Anand to bail out main accused Sanjeev Nanda.

The expose was allegedly done by Kulkarni himself using a hidden camera.

The video shows defence lawyer RK Anand meeting Kulkarni and asking him not to depose against the accused.

Stung and stunned

Khan - who requested the court to relieve him of his duties as the public prosecutor - reacted to the TV expose, saying he had not done anything wrong. "I have not done anything wrong, morally, socially or legally which will enable them to initiate any action against me," he was quoted by PTI as saying

Anand too refuted all allegations against him and said his slate was clear. "I have nothing to hide. I am not involved in any of this. The way NDTV has shown all this is out of context. When he (Kulkarni) came to me at the airport, there were only two ways I could have reacted. One: I get the police, two: I ask him to get back to me later or simply answer his question. I was to catch a flight and I spoke with him about the cash in a sacrastic manner just to ward him off," Anand said.

Anand also denied having met Kulkarni after he "bumped into him" at the airport . "Someone else must be recording the footage. It's got nothing to do with me," he said adding Kulkarni had a "dubious past" and his antecedents needed to be examined.

Shock and outrage

The expose and the Delhi Police action has sparked off a flurry of reactions from the judicial fraternity.

Former chief justice of India Rajinder Sachar said the expose was shocking and needs to be taken very seriously. "If sting operations disclose such kind of things, FIRs must be lodged. All this should be taken note of by Bar Council or judicial the fraternity," Sachar told CNN-IBN.

Senior advocate K T S Tulsi said the "stream of judiciary" had been polluted. "Some court could take suo-moto cognizanse of the matter. The stream of justice polluted by the very people who are to protect it. Bar association could also move but these are criminal offences. The fact that senior lawyers are involved is simply shocking," he said.

Neelam Katara who has been fighting for justice in the long-drawn Nitish Katara murder case said it was the first step in the journey towards justice. "It's heartening to see representatives from the public coming forward for justice. The key witness in my case too was direct influence of the accused. It's only when people come forward can justice be ensured," she said.

THE CASE SO FAR

On January 10, 1999, six people were run over, allegedly by a BMW driven by young industrialist Sanjeev Nanda.

Nanda is a Delhi businessman, son of an influential arms dealer and the grandson of former Navy chief.

Six persons, including three policemen, were killed in the incident that had occurred at Lodhi Road in the capital.

Three youths including prime accused Sanjeev Nanda, grandson of former Admiral S M Nanda, are facing trial in the case.

Others who have been chargesheeted are his friend Manik Kapur and Siddharth Gupta, who were allegedly accompanying him in his car.

Prosecution alleged that Nanda, who was at the wheel, was drunk along with his friends.

Sunil Kulkarni, who was named as an eyewitness to the accident, retracted from his statement by saying that it was not a BMW but a speeding truck that mowed down the victims.

Kulkarni is the only one so far who has not turned hostile in the case. Earlier witnesses had changed their statement to say that a truck and not a car had run over the people.

Kulkarni says he was walking on South Delhi's Lodhi Road on the fateful night when he saw a black car hit a police picket and then crash into a group of people who were sitting around a fire.

Three people came out of the car after that and one of them was Sanjeev Nanda. Then one of them said: 'Sanj lets get out of here', and they fled the scene.

Kulkarni said he could not see the driver due to blinding headlights. In the second round of questioning, he claimed that he had heard someone say 'Sanj' instead of 'Sanjeev', as he had claimed last time - an anomaly which the defence will try and exploit.

Two other witnesses, Manoj Malik and Harishankar, the petrol pump attendant who had called up the Police Control Room, have already turned hostile in the case. Malik had told the court that it was a truck, not a car, which killed the people.

In April 2007, the Delhi High Court had issued notice to the Delhi police to explain why Sunil Kulkarni, the prosecution witness in the 1999 BMW hit and run case should be brought back to Delhi from Mumbai.