The Hindu : New Delhi News : “Fingerprints don’t match with accused”

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 20, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

“Fingerprints don’t match with accused”

Staff Reporter

BMW case takes a new turn

Fingerprints taken from car smeared: prosecution
“Fingerprints of co-accused matching”

NEW DELHI: The prosecution on Wednesday told a Sessions court here that the fingerprints of prime accused Sanjeev Nanda in the nine-year-old BMW hit-and-run case did not match those lifted from the car that was allegedly involved in the accident.

While submitting the forensic report, Special Public Prosecutor Rajeev Mohan told Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Kumar that Nanda’s fingerprints did not match the chance prints lifted from the car following the accident in the early hours of January 10, 1999.

However, the public prosecutor told the court that a set of fingerprints matched those of Manik Kapoor, who is an accused and was also allegedly one of the occupants of the vehicle.

The prosecution also told the court that the fingerprints which had been lifted from the car were smeared and smudged.

The court had on September 1 granted permission to prosecution to collect the fingerprints of the accused. The prosecution had sought the permission on the ground that it was necessary to take the case to its logical conclusion.

Before granting permission, however, the court had taken strong exception to the prosecution’s plea. It had asked why the prosecution had not collected fresh fingerprints during all these years and pleading for them when the case had reached at the fag end. The defence had told the court that it would comply with the orders but had also said the exercise would only delay the case.

The hearing of the case would continue on September 22.

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