The Hindu : New Delhi News : The name ‘Sanjeev’ was called out, says BMW witness

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Thursday, Jul 12, 2007
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New Delhi

The name ‘Sanjeev’ was called out, says BMW witness

Staff Reporter

He had earlier said he was not sure about the name
Two lawyers had left the case after a sting operation

NEW DELHI: Sunil Kulkarni, eyewitness in the nine-year-old BMW hit-and-run case, on Wednesday told the trial court that he had heard one of the occupants calling out for “Sanjeev” to leave the place after the accident. In his deposition earlier, he had said he was not sure about the name and that it was probably a nickname like “Sanj” or “Sanz”.

Cross-examination

During cross-examination, Kulkarni told the court he was sure the words uttered by one of the occupants were “let us rush” and the name called out was Sanjeev.

In his deposition, Kulkarni had said a hefty-looking man, who was not present in the court, had come out of the vehicle from the driver’s side. He had also said that prime accused Sanjeev Nanda was “not the person who came out of the car from the driver’s side, though he was one of the occupants”.

Kulkarni also said he was not sure if the other accused Manik Kapoor was one of three persons to have come out of the car. “If I am shown a photograph taken nine years ago then I can identify Kapoor,” he said.

Earlier, defence counsel Ramesh Gupta objected to the prosecution asking questions that had already been asked by the prosecution counsel and answered. But Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Kumar allowed the questions on the ground that the prosecutor had changed.

Public Prosecutor I. U. Khan and defence counsel R. K. Anand had left the case following a sting operation by television news channel NDTV last month. The sting purportedly had shown the defence and prosecution counsel in discussions with Kulkarni over how to bail out Nanda.

During cross-questioning by the defence counsel, Kulkarni agreed that his statement was recorded after he had nearly spent two days with the police official following his return from Bhopal.

The witness also accepted that somebody had told him in the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) that since he was not a reliable person, his statement would be recorded before a magistrate to which he had agreed. However, Kulkarni denied that the content of the statements he made before the police or the magistrate was settled with the Station House Officer in advance.

Further, on being asked by defence counsel, Kulkarni said he was brought to the Patiala House courts where he was shown Nanda in the court lock-up and this was before his statement was recorded.

Kulkarni said he was not sure of the distance from which he saw the accident. The court deferred the matter for July 13 when the defence is supposed to complete the cross-questioning of the witness.

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