The Hindu : New Delhi News : Key witness identifies Nanda in BMW case

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Friday, May 18, 2007
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New Delhi

Key witness identifies Nanda in BMW case

Staff Reporter

Six persons were crushed to death by the speeding car in 1999

NEW DELHI: Sunil Kulkarni, a key witness in the BMW hit-and-run case, on Thursday identified prime accused Sanjeev Nanda as one of three persons who had come out of the car following the ghastly accident on the night of January 10, 1999, in which six persons, including three policemen, were killed.

Deposing before Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Kumar, Kulkarni pointed to the young man in a white shirt (Sanjeev Nanda) as the one who had got out of the car along with two others that night. He said the second person was of a hefty built but was not present in the court now.

He could not identify the third accused, Manik Kapoor, "due to the time lag of nine years".

He further told the court that he was not sure who got out of the car from the driver's side because of the powerful headlights of the vehicle.

Later, Kulkarni recalled that after three persons came out of the car and inspected it from all sides, one of them called out for what sounded like "Sanz or Sids" and said, "Let's rush!"

Kulkarni also said he was under police pressure to name Sanjeev when he gave a statement under oath before the Metropolitan Magistrate. "It was not the Investigating Officer or the Station House Officer, but an official from Police Headquarters who told me that there could be nothing like a nickname and asked me to take the name of Sanjeev," he added.

Reconstructing the sequence of events, Kulkarni said he was walking down Lodhi Road in the early hours of January 10 when he saw a vehicle with powerful headlights coming from the opposite direction. Some people standing near the middle of the road were hit by the vehicle and flung into the air. The vehicle screeched to a halt and again hit something. Three persons came out, inspected the car from all sides, reversed it and sped away. It was, Kulkarni said, a black car and a human body part was thrown out of its rear window.

"Stunned" by what he saw, Kulkarni said, he tried to get help for the victims but got no response from persons sleeping at a nearby petrol station. He then hired a rickshaw to go to Nizamuddin railway station. He tried contacting the Police Control Room using the phones installed there but none worked.

He then took a train to Bhopal where was due to meet one Mr. Kataria.

However, he could not get over the incident and returned to Delhi two or three days later. He then contacted Joint Commissioner of Police Amod Kanth who immediately asked him to come to the Police Headquarters where he narrated all that he had seen.

The court has deferred his cross-examination till May 29. The prosecution and defence counsel had been barred from cross-questioning by the Delhi High Court that had also refused to stay Kulkarni's deposition. Sanjeev Nanda had challenged in the Delhi High Court the trial court's decision to summon a witness already dropped by the prosecution. The prosecution had dropped the witness as "unreliable" because it felt he had been won over by the accused.

The court has directed the Delhi police to give protection to Kulkarni till the completion of his evidence.

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