Jessica case: NBW against 3 hostile witnesses

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued non-bailable warrants (NBW) against three hostile witnesses in the high-profile Jessica Lal murder case who failed to turn up before it in compliance with its summoning order.

The warrants were issued against Varun Shah, Mukesh Saini and Narayan Singh by a Bench of Justice RS Sodhi and Justice PK Bhasin.

While sentencing prime accused Manu Sharma to life imprisonment for killing ramp model Jessica in April 1999, the court had on December 20 summoned all the 32 witnesses who had turned hostile in the case.

The Bench directed all those 26 witnesses including actor Shyan Munshi and Andaleep Sehgal, who appeared before it on Thursday, to file their replies within two weeks explaining why they had retracted from their earlier statements.

The court also directed the state counsel Mukta Gupta to provide them within two days the copies of the statement of the witnesses recorded by the police and Investigating Officers' testimony, who recorded their statements.

Shyan, Shiv Dass Yadav, an electrician at Tamarind Court Cafe, and Jagannath Jha were among those eye-witnesses who had turned hostile during the trial in the Jessica Lal murder case.