The Hindu : Front Page : Delhi police appeal in Jessica case admitted by Court; warrants issued

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 23, 2006

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Front Page

Delhi police appeal in Jessica case admitted by Court; warrants issued

Prashant Pandey

All nine accused acquitted by trial court restrained from leaving the country

NEW DELHI : The Delhi High Court on Wednesday admitted the Delhi police appeal challenging the trial court verdict in the Jessica Lal murder case and issued bailable warrants against all nine accused who had been acquitted by the trial court last month. The accused have been restrained from leaving the country and have to appear in court on April 18, the next date of hearing.

Submitting the appeal before a Division Bench of Justice Manmohan Sarin and Justice Manju Goel, Additional Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam and senior State counsel Mukta Gupta prayed to the Court to issue non-bailable warrants against the accused. They argued that one of the accused had already left for the United States and others might follow suit.

However, the Court issued bailable warrants against the accused along with the restraining order.

The bail amount for prime accused Siddharatha Vashistha alias Manu Sharma has been fixed at Rs. 1 lakh, while for others it is Rs. 50,000 each.

While Manu Sharma had been out on bail since 2002, the other accused in the case, Vikas Yadav, is already in jail in connection with the Nitish Katara murder case. Amandeep Singh Gill alias Tony, Alok Khanna, Shyam Sunder Sharma, Harvinder Gupta, Vikas Gill, Raja Chopra and Yograj Singh are the seven other accused who were acquitted by the trial court.

Earlier this month the police had issued "look out" notices for all the accused and witnesses to ensure that they remained available for investigation into the fresh case registered on March 6 to probe the alleged destruction of evidence, fabrication of records and criminal conspiracy that led to the acquittals in the sensational murder case.

Prepared in consultation with Mr. Subramaniam, the appeal cites 92 grounds for setting aside the trial court verdict.

The primary reason mentioned in the appeal was that adequate attention had not been paid to circumstantial evidence. It further mentioned that not much weight had been given to statements of witnesses who did not turn hostile and supported the prosecution's contention. On the other hand, a lot of importance was attached to the statements of witnesses who turned hostile.

The appeal also mentioned that the conduct of the accused following the murder was not given any consideration.

Talking to reporters at Delhi Police Headquarters during the day, Police Commissioner K. K. Paul said the appeal specifically mentioned that a case had been registered to investigate who all colluded with the accused to derail the murder trial. He reiterated that whosoever was found guilty now of having colluded with the accused to botch up the trial would not be spared even if it meant taking action against senior police officers.

"Investigations so far have made satisfactory progress, and with the High Court issuing directions, the probe into the conspiracy case would be expedited, `' he added.

"Fears allayed by Court"

Meanwhile, Sabrina Lal, sister of Jessica Lal, expressed relief over the directions issued by the High Court. She told media persons that the biggest fear so far was that the accused might escape out of the country but with restraining orders in place now those fears had been allayed.

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