By IANS
New Delhi : The Delhi High Court Tuesday issued show cause notices to senior advocates R.K. Anand and I.U. Khan and directed them to file their replies for allegedly influencing a witness in the high-profile BMW hit-and-run case of 1999.
Anand, who was representing prime accused Sanjiv Nanda, and special public prosecutor I.U. Khan were caught on camera purportedly influencing Sunil Kulkarni, a crucial witness. Their alleged move goes against the rules and norms of the criminal procedure code.
A bench headed by Justice Manmohan Sarin found prima facie evidence against the lawyers who “wilfully obstructed and interfered” with the criminal justice system.
The court also issued notices to Anand’s associate Bhagwan Sharma and alleged middleman Lovely. All four have been asked to file their replies in four weeks.
“An attempt was made to influence the witnesses in the ongoing proceedings in the trial court so as to interfere with the administration of justice,” the court said.
On May 31, the court had taken notice of a sting operation telecast by NDTV in the case and asked police to seize all records and CDs related to it.
The judges questioned the motive of Kulkarni in carrying out the sting operation alleging that he was bribed by the advocates on both sides to turn hostile. It appointed Arvind Nigam as amicus curiae to assist it in hearing the matter.
Kulkarni along with NDTV news channel’s investigative team had performed a sting operation that purported to show Khan directing the witness to contact Anand.
Anand’s assistant allegedly struck a deal with Kulkarni for turning hostile on a payment of Rs.20 million, the TV channel claimed.
In 1999, Nanda allegedly killed six people sleeping on a footpath in south Delhi as he ran his BMW car over them. Nanda got bail after nine months in jail when the only survivor changed his story and said a truck and not a BMW caused the accident.