Delhi HC summons 32 hostile witnesses, including a dead one

NEW DELHI: In order to curb the menace of witnesses turning hostile in criminal cases thus facilitating acquittal of the guilty, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday summoned all 32 witnesses including Karan Rajput, who died in January last year, to show cause “why action should not be not taken against them” for purgery in the Jessica Lall murder case.

Rajput had gone to the Tamarind Court to meet his nephew Jitender Raj, manager of the Bina Ramani-owned illegal bar, when Jessica was shot dead in April 1999. Rajput had claimed that he had seen the offence being committed, but he later retracted. He died due to acute liver-related problems. Since none drew the court’s attention towards this fact, a notice was also issued for him. His name would be dropped later as unlike in the civil disputes, legal heirs of a dead person can’t be substituted in criminal cases.

A Bench of Justices R S Sodhi and P K Bhasin, after sentencing the accused with “appropriate” punishment, directed Mehrauli police station-in-charge to ensure that these 32 persons, including Shyan Munshi of ‘Jhankar Beats’ fame, and Andleep Sehgal, a friend of former External Affairs Minister’s son Jagat Singh who is also named in the food-for-oil scam, are present before it on February 1.

Of the 101 witnesses examined by Chief Public Prosecutor S K Saxena, 32, including three eyewitnesses to the murder of Jessica and ballistic expert Prem Sagar Minocha, were declared hostile. “This is definitely a sad state of affairs,” observed the court, adding “witnesses turning hostile appears to be the order of the day”. The judges said the courts must “put an end to this kind of attitude of witnesses in order to thwart the course of justice.” Amid public and political outcry against paucity of law to curb the menace of hostile witnesses, Chief justice of India Y K Sabharwal had also remarked that “hostile witness is not a new phenomenon. When I started practice it was there… it is a problem of society.”

All the 32 witnesses in the Best Bakery massacre case had turned hostile resulting in the acquittal of all the 21 accused who had allegedly burnt 14 innocent persons alive including children. Complainant in the Bakery case Zahira Habibullah Sheikh who was also a star witness in the case later faced the charge of purgery and contempt of court. She has been sentenced to imprisonment and also paid Rs 50,000 in fine.

Zahira’s lawyer D K Garg terms Delhi HC order as “much needed”. He hopes that at least now people wouldn’t convert a BMW limousine that they had seen speeding over six sleeping labourers on a Delhi pavement into a Tata Truck when asked to narrate the truth before the court.

Another noted criminal law expert K T S Tulsi said that “efforts should also be made to infuse people’s confidence in the justice delivery system”. He wants “due respect” for the witnesses. “They should assist the court,” Tulsi said, adding, “witnesses’ statements must be recorded by a magistrate”.

While dealing with a TADA case relating to the killing of an MLA in Gujarat while he was sitting on the dais along with senior officers, the Supreme Court had noted that all the bureaucrats who had seen the offence being committed had turned hostile. The killer was acquitted. Convicting the killer, the SC had observed, “This is a classic illustration of how the prosecution case was sabotaged by witnesses turning hostile and creating a disbelief in the efficacy of the criminal justice system. It needs urgent attention and appropriate remedial action on the part of the legislature and the executive in that behalf.”