Bina forced to side with cops: Jethmalani

Abhinav Garg / TNN / Nov 2, 2006, 00:54 IST

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Criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani attacked the Delhi Police for coercing Bina Ramani into stating 'inaccurate truth' in her testimony.

Bina forced to side with cops: Jethmalani

NEW DELHI: Opening his arguments in defence of Manu Sharma, the prime accused in model Jessica Lall's murder, noted criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani on Wednesday attacked the Delhi Police for coercing Bina Ramani into stating "inaccurate truth" in her testimony.
While challenging Ramani's presence at the murder spot, the senior advocate expressed his sympathy for her, and said she compromised "with her conscience in the belief that she was serving the cause of justice".
In an attempt to impress upon the bench of justices R S Sodhi and P K Bhasin the futility of Ramani's statement, Jethmalani read out the statement of three witnesses cited by the prosecution who, on oath, had said the socialite was not present when Jessica was shot. This in effect meant that she had not seen the murder or the killer.
Jethmalani also insinuated that Ramani, her daughter Malini and husband George Mailhot were forced to give a statement in favour of the police as the latter had threatened to book them for destruction of evidence as Jessica's blood had been wiped off.

Ramani drew support from Jethmalani as he stated that wiping the blood from the floor was an "innocent act" as the incident had left her shaken. "Merely wiping off the bloodstains from the spot wasn't an offence as she was not trying to screen the offender," he argued.
Taking a dig at the prosecution, Jethamalani added that Ramani had become the "best bet" of their case as they forced her to depose in their favour by threatening to book her for destruction of evidence and as the proprietress of an illegal bar.

"There was a sword of Damocles hanging over Bina, Malini and George that if they did not depose against the accused they themselves would be made co-accused. The police therefore had a lever to make them pliable witnesses in the murder trial," he alleged.
To prove his claim, Jethmalani produced trial case records showing the prosecution's plea for an early hearing of the Excise Act case against the Ramanis, which was filed as soon as Mailhot finished deposing in the Jessica case.
Once again pointing to the three prosecution witnesses — sub-inspector Sunil Kumar who recorded Shyan Munshi's statement at Ashlok hospital, Madan Kumar who was a waiter at the restaurant, and manager Jatinder Raj — Jethmalani tried to convince the bench that Bina was outside Tamarind Court when Jessica was shot, which meant Shyan was the only eyewitness.
"Even in the map of Qutab Collonade the prosecution prepared in July 1999, they haven't indicated where Bina was present when Jessica got shot. It was impossible for Bina to have seen the actual shooting or when and by whom the shot was fired as Jitender in his testimony says that he saw her outside, on the steps of the cafe, seconds after he heard the two shots," Jethmalani said, insisting that this "conflict of testimony between prosecution witnesses" goes in favour of the accused.
Jethmalani also took the prosecution to task for "binding down" the witnesses to the statement they gave before the police, by forcing them to attest their signatures.
"This seriously impairs their evidence. The police showed them Manu's photographs at the police station, thus conditioning their minds before the test identification parade in court. This again renders evidence worthless," he opined.

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