In a never before judgement, the Delhi high court on Thursday debarred two senior advocates from attending court proceedings for the next four months.
Duo caught in sting offering witness Rs2 cr not to depose against accused
NEW DELHI: In a never before judgement, the Delhi high court on Thursday debarred two senior advocates from attending court proceedings for the next four months and also stripped them of their designation of ‘senior advocate’, for their role in the BMW hit-and-run case.
The judgement followed after it was established in court that the two - public prosecutor IU Khan and defence counsel RK Anand - had conspired and offered money to the key eyewitness to change his statements to protect the accused.
Though legal experts hail the verdict, they point out the duo escaped with minor punishments and there have been cases where people have been imprisoned for obstructing justice and contempt of court. “There have been cases where people have been sent to jail for contempt of court and obstructing justice but these two people have just been debarred for four months. It is a serious issues and I think a more severe verdict was necessary,” said KTS Tulsi, senior Supreme Court lawyer.
Anand, a noted criminal lawyer who is representing accused Sanjeev Nanda in the BMW case, and Khan were caught on camera offering money to Sunil Kulkarni, the sole eyewitness.
Describing the acts of the two lawyers as “irresponsible” and “obstruction of justice”, the bench said the issue had serious ramifications because both are seasoned lawyers who knew exactly what they were doing. The court also cited that they were not dealing with junior practitioners who could have erred.
A private news channel carried out the sting operation after Kulkarni informed them about the bribe he was offered by the two lawyers. Soon after the tapes were aired and the sting operation was made public, the two lawyers were suspended from the bar council.
The duo wanted Kulkarni to change his statement in the court because he was the only eyewitness who had seen Nanda run his car over seven people on the morning of January 10, 1999. Though there were two other witnesses, they retracted their statement during the course of trial making Kulkarni the only witness.
v_gyan@dnaindia.net
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