By IANS,
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Wednesday acquitted three people convicted for tampering with evidence in the 1999 BMW hit-and-run case involving Sanjeev Nanda, son of arms dealer Suresh Nanda. Six people were killed in the incident.
Sanjeev Nanda is the grandson of late naval chief Admiral S.M. Nanda.
The apex court bench of Justice Deepak Verma and Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan acquitted Sanjeev Nanda’s friend and businessman Rajiv Gupta and his employees Bhola Nath and Shyam Singh.
The court frowned at police for not lifting the finger-prints from the BMW car involved in the incident so that the identity of those involved in tampering with evidence could be established.
Gupta was awarded six months sentence and Bhola Nath and Shyam Singh were sentenced to three months jail each. Sanjiv Nanda’s sentence of five years was reduced to two years by the Delhi high court.
The high court reduced the one year sentence awarded to Gupta by the trial court to six months. Similarly, the high court reduced from six months to three months the sentence awarded to Bhoal Nath and Shyam Singh by the trial court.
Expressing its displeasure over the investigation, the apex court said police failed to bring on record evidence to show who washed the car to remove the blood stains after the accident which claimed six lives, including that of three policemen, Jan 10, 1999.
The court Jan 11 chided police for not doing enough for moving the apex court to challenge the high court order reducing the sentence of Nanda.
Police had sought to shift the burden for this on the Delhi government alleging that its official sat on the file for 21 days on giving an opinion whether an appeal in the case should be filed or not.
Police appeal challenging the high court order reducing Nanda’s sentence from five years to two years was delayed by 51 days.