The Hindu : New Delhi News : `Jessica case hearing after Priyadarshini Mattoo case'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 01, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

`Jessica case hearing after Priyadarshini Mattoo case'

Staff Reporter

High Court passes order on plea by Standing Counsel Mukta Gupta

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday told the Delhi police that it would take up for hearing the appeal against acquittals in the Jessica Lal murder case after conclusion of arguments on the appeal against acquittal in the Priyadarshini Mattoo murder case pending before it.

A Division Bench of the Court comprising Justice R.S. Sodhi and Justice P.K. Bhasin passed the order when Standing Counsel Mukta Gupta urged it to fix an early date for taking up the appeal for hearing. The Bench further said it would fix a date for hearing of the appeal after conclusion of arguments in the Priyadarshini murder case.

On a petition by the Central Bureau of Investigation seeking an early hearing of the appeal in the Priyadarshini murder case, the Bench has fixed August 31 for beginning arguments on it.

The Jessica Lal murder case is unlikely to come up for hearing in the next two to three months as counsel for accused Santosh Kumar Singh in the Priyadarshini murder case informed the Court that arguments on the appeal would take at least two months to conclude.

Status report

Earlier, the city police filed a status report about the progress of investigation of the fresh case lodged to probe destruction, tampering, removal of evidence and delay in informing the police about the incident in the Jessica Lal case.

After perusing the report, the Bench observed that it disclosed nothing about the progress of investigation into the allegations.

However, Ms. Gupta submitted that the probe had almost been completed but the investigating agency required more time to tie up the loose ends of the case by taking the opinion of writing and forensic experts.

On her request, the Bench gave two months more to the city police to complete the investigation and submit a status report with the Court.

In her submission, Ms. Gupta further contended that the police had received information about the incident at 2-15 a.m. while the fact was that Jessica Lal had already been rushed to a private hospital at 2-12 a.m.

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