New Delhi: The hostile witnesses in the Jessica Lall murder case on Monday claimed at the Delhi High Court that their statements had been misquoted by the police.
Being pushed to the corner after the High Court show-cause notices on them for turning hostile during the trial of the case, most of the witnesses — including model-turned-actor Shayan Munshi — tried to put the blame on the police when they appeared in the court on Monday.
Munshi, who was dubbed as a 'liar' by a Bench headed by Justice R S Sodhi, claimed that the police had not correctly recorded his statement after the crime was committed.
Another hostile witness, ballistic expert P S Minocha, filed an affidavit stating that the question about the suspected weapon was not very clear to him when the police had recorded his statement.
The bench, comprising Justice R S Sodhi and Justice P K Bhasin, was not convinced with this argument and said it will peruse Minocha's affidavit and pass a direction.
The court discharged 10 of the 29 witnesses who were served with show-cause notices for turning hostile during the trial of the case as it was satisfied with their reply.
However, the court was not satisfied with the arguments of Munshi's counsel that the FIR was not consistent with the statement given to the police after the offence.
While posting the hearing for April 23, the bench asked the police officials, who had recorded their statements, to file affidavits as reply to these allegations.
"The content of the FIR was also not the same which I (Munshi) had stated before the police," senior advocate Aman Lekhi appearing for him argued.
To this submission the bench said, "The Court has enough power to prosecute without serving a show-cause notice to you."
The bench also asked the investigating officer to file an affidavit to this allegation.
While sentencing prime accused Manu Sharma to life imprisonment for killing 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 expressed concern over the practice of witnesses turning hostile during the trial and observed, "With impunity, the witnesses are misleading the police and they walk off without being punished. In this condition, the whole system will collapse."
Those who were summoned include Andaleeb Sehgal, facing probe in the Iraqi oil-for-food scam, Shiv Dass Yadav, an electrician at Tamarind Court Cafe, ballistic expert Prem Sagar Minocha and Shakar Mukhia, an employee at Manu Sharma's farmhouse at Sambhalkha in Haryana.
(With PTI inputs)
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