Delhi HC to hear BMW case

The Delhi High Court will hear the BMW hit-and-run case here today.

New Delhi, July 2 : The Delhi High Court will hear the BMW hit-and-run case here today.

Chief Justice M K Sharma will hear the matter, which was earlier posted by a division Bench comprising Justices J P Singh and S Murlidhar. The court was informed that its earlier order was obeyed by the TV channel and Registrar General of the court.

The court had taken suo motu cognisance of the television channel's expose in the case, which revealed the likely collusion between the defence, the prosecution and a key witness.

The court sought all records and unedited footage of a sting operation carried out by a private news channel in connection with the case.

The channel has clarified that no money was paid to the key witness Sunil Kulkarni, and added that the expose was scripted, edited and vetted by the channel's editorial and legal team.

A day after the expose, the Delhi Police dropped Special Public Prosecutor I U Khan and replaced him with senior lawyer Rajeev Mohan.

Khan, however, said that he had done ''no wrong'' and his name was not taken in connection with ''any talks'' of money being exchanged. He said that his statements have been interpreted incorrectly.

He also said that Sunil Kulkarni was dropped as a prosecution witness, as he threatened the police and made false allegations about being coerced to change his testimony.

On his part, defence lawyer R K Anand called the allegations on tape ''fabricated'' and said Kulkarni had in fact approached him and not the other way round.

But in an earlier interview to NDTV, Anand denied meeting Kulkarni more than once, even though the tape revealed two separate meetings.

The expose is a huge embarrassment for the police who say they will examine all aspects related to investigation and trial to ensure that no damage has been done to the case. The role of three key police officers associated with the case will also be looked into.

The officers are Bimlesh Yadav, former Station House Officer of the Lodhi Colony police station, Mahadev Mehta, former Assistant Commissioner of Police of Defence Colony and Ullas Giri, former sub inspector of the Lodhi Colony police station.

In 1999, six people were run over allegedly by a BMW driven by Sanjeev Nanda, a young and rich industrialist. But six years later, all witnesses, except one, turned hostile.

ANI