BMW accused plea for case transfer

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JAN. 31. Sanjeev Nanda, prime accused in the BMW hit- and-run case, has approached the trial court for closing of the recording of evidence and transfer of the case to a Metropolitan Magistrate.

In two separate applications to the Additional Sessions Judge, Mr. P.K. Bhashin, Nanda, through his counsel, Mr. Ramesh Gupta, urged the Judge to close the recording of statements of prosecution witnesses further as the prosecution had been dragging its feet on helping the court to conclude the trial expeditiously.

In the second application, he urged the judge to transfer the case to a Metropolitan Magistrate (MM) as after the quashing of the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder (304 (1) of IPC) by the Delhi High Court last November, it had become a case triable by an MM.

He said the speed at which the trial was continuing, it might take years together to conclude. The prosecution had filed a list of 66 witnesses to prove the case but so far it had examined only 6 witnesses, the applicant complained.

The application further submitted that since Nanda's release on bail in May 1999, the prosecution had been able to examine only two witnesses. It was given 20 opportunities by the trial court but no further progress was made in that direction, Nanda alleged.

Citing a Sessions court order in the Wazirabad bus tragedy case here in which the judge had discharge the bus driver of the allegation under Section 304 (1) of IPC and transferred the case to an MM for trial, Nanda submitted that his was also a case of the same nature, and, therefore, it be transferred to an MM court.

In the meanwhile, Rajiv Gupta, a co-accused in the case, has filed a separate application for dropping of the case against him.

He wants discharge in the case on the ground of the High Court order discharging his son, Siddharth Gupta, as well as on the plea that the two eye-witnesses of the case- Manoj Malik, the lone survivor in the accident, and Harishankar Yadav-- had testified before the court that the car not involved in the accident.

Rajiv Gupta is facing trial for destroying evidence of the accident.

Mr. Bhasin will take the three applications for consideration on February 9.

Mr. Justice R.S. Sodhi of the High Court had discharged Siddharth Gupta of culpable homicide not amounting to murder (304) (1) attempt to commit culpable homicide (308) and destruction of evidence (201) charges when the Special Public Prosecutor, I.U. Khan, admitted before him that the charges were not made out.

The Judge was all praise for the SPP for admitting the prosecution failure to gather clinching evidence to prove the charges against Gupta.

``I must give due credit to the SPP who has risen to the call of duty and conceded very fairly that charges under 304 (1) and 308 cannot be made out,'' the Judge said.

Six persons, including three policemen, were allegedly crushed to death when Sanjeev Nanda, along with his co-accused friends, Siddharth Gupta and Manik Kapoor, in an drunken condition, ran his BMW car through seven persons killing five on the spot in the wee hours of January 10, 1999 on Lodi Road here.

Five accused persons-- Sanjeev Nanda, Manik Kapoor, Rajiv Gupta, Bhola Nath and Shyam Singh Rana-- are facing trial in the case.

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