<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">There is always much hype and hoopla every time a heavyweight is named in a criminal case. But police’s initial bravado almost always culminates anti-climatically with the accused walking free.<br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Priyadarshini Mattoo case</span><br />The acquittal of Santosh Kumar, accused of raping and murdering law graduate Priyadarshini Mattoo (22), had shocked many.
The prosecution case was that Mattoo had been raped and murdered at her Vasant Kunj residence on January 23, 1996 after she spurned the advances of the accused. After rape, her face was battered with a motorcycle helmet.<br />The key witness, a chowkidar, never appeared in the case and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) maintained he was not traceable. Whereas a newspaper published a full page interview of the same man who said he had been living in his village in Bihar and was never contacted by the CBI or the police.<br />On October 20, a high court division Bench is going to see if the parties in the case have compiled all documents required so that the court can fix a date of hearing on appeal. The prosecution in this case is pinning its hope on the appeal filed against the verdict of the trial court which acquitted the main accused Kumar, son of a deputy inspector-general of police, on the ground that CBI itself had blown holes in the prosecution case.<br />While acquitting the accused on ‘‘the benefit of doubt’’, then additional sessions judge G P Thareja held CBI ‘‘responsible for such an end of the trial as...created holes in the proof of the case’’ by withholding evidence. Mattoo had lodged several complaints against Kumar at different police stations in Delhi. She was being stalked and harassed by the accused.<br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Personal Point triple murder case</span><br />This is one crime of passion in which the prosecution gained little success — after the trial court on March 29, 1999 convicted main accused municipal contractor Subhash Gupta while acquitting eight others for want of evidence. Sharma’s appeal against the conviction is pending in the high court. He was accused of murdering Personal Point clinics owner Dr Sunil Kaul and his two employees, Sujata Saha and Deepa Gupta, in reprisal of his unrequited passion for Saha.<br />Gupta, who enrolled at the Personal Point weight-loss clinic as client, developed a passion for diet counsellor Saha who spurned his advances. Kaul, too, was against Gupta. Incensed, Gupta hatched a plan to kill the two and hired Uttar Pradesh gangsters. On June 6, 1996 the victims disappeared. Kaul was taken toward Agra and murdered. His body was found in Hodel in Haryana. The BMW carrying Gupta, Saha, Deepa and two more persons left for Meerut. When Deepa got the whiff of Kaul’s murder, she too was killed.<br />When Gupta sensed Saha had also become suspicious, he made a last offer of marriage. Saha rejected it and she, too, was murdered. Each victim was sedated with a diazepam injection by accused, Dr Hemant Kalra, (now acquitted) before being throttled to death. Saha and Deepa’s bodies were found in Morena in Madhya Pradesh. During trial Gupta pleaded he was also sedated and did not know what had happened. But the judge observed that a man who could drink whisky, eat snacks and make telephone calls to his home could not have been heavily sedated. <span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">BMW hit-and-run case</span><br />Most witnesses in this hit-and-run case have turned hostile and only police witnesses are supporting the prosecution. And they have little credibility in the eyes of the law. Main accused, Sanjeev Nanda, was granted permission by the high court to go abroad and resume studies, after he pleaded the case was dragging unnecessarily.<br />Despite all the beating it got in the court, the prosecution has kept its chin up. ‘‘He won’t get away with it. We have enough evidence to prove his guilt under Section 304 — culpable homicide not amounting murder,’’ additional public prosecutor Vineet Malhotra told The Times of India. <br />Sanjeev, the grandson of former naval chief S M Nanda, is accused of killing six persons and injuring one in Lodhi Road on January 10, 1999 when he was allegedly driving his BMW car in an inebriated state.<br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Naina Sahni murder case</span><br />This case seems to be on its last leg as Hyderabad DNA expert, G V Rao, has deposed in favour of the prosecution. But the court has recalled those witnesses who have been dropped by the prosecution. The test had reportedly proved that the charred body found in the tandoor was of Naina Sahni. <br />There are 105 prosecution witnesses in the six-year-old murder case. The victim’s husband, who is also main accused in the case, former Delhi Youth Congress president Sushil Sharma had moved the high court to permit Additional Sessions Judge G P Thareja to hear the case although he was transferred from the criminal side to the civil Bench. Rao was the 87th witness in the case. <br />The police have decided to drop the remaining witnesses. According to the investigating officer, the statement of remaining witnesses was not required for the trial. But the judge thought otherwise.<br />The incident had shocked Delhiites with its barbarity. The accused allegedly tried to dispose of the victim’s body in the oven of Bagiya, an open air restaurant at Ashok Yatri Niwas, on July 2, 1995. <br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Jessica Lall murder case</span><br />Although the proceedings in this case are about to conclude, the involvement of Vikas Yadav in Katara kidnapping case (who was found killed) has lent it a different hue. Yadav is accused of conspiracy and destruction of evidence in Jessica Lall murder case. So far none of the key witnesses have named him as party to the alleged crime, whereas prosecution has alleged witnesses have been influenced. Most of the 131 witnesses have testified. The prosecution plans to drop the weak witnesses.<br />Ramp model Jessica Lall was allegedly killed on April 30, 1999 by the former Union minister Venod Sharma’s son Manu Sharma, when she refused to serve him liquor in a restaurant-cum-bar in south Delhi. <br />He is out on interim bail these days. Except for socialite Bina Ramani, her husband, George Mailhot, and their daughter, Malini Ramani, most of the witnesses, including main eye-witnesses model Shyan Munshi, cafe electrician Shiv Dass Yadav and businessman Karan Rajput, have not supported the prosecution case.<br />Those who who face trial in the case include: Rajya Sabha MP D P Yadav’s son Vikas Yadav, Coca-Cola executive Amardeep Singh Gill; Alok Khanna; Manu’s uncle Shyam Sundar Sharma. </div> </div>
