HC puts Jessica case on fast track

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday put the hearing of the police plea against acquittals in the Jessica Lall murder case on the fast track, refusing to defer the hearing to October 10.
Standing counsel Mukta Gupta had sought postponement on the ground that additional solicitor general Gopal Subramanium was not present in the country but the court was in no mood to listen.
In fact, Justice R S Sodhi and Justice P K Bhasin told the police that they would hear the case thrice a week — on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday — and would hold day-long proceedings.
Gupta had told the court that Subramanium was not present in the country to represent the investigating agency.
Interestingly, the judges also gave the cops lessons on how to collect scientific evidence to establish that the empty shells recovered from the spot were actually of bullets shot by accused Manu Sharma.
After Gupta was asked to begin her arguments, she told the court that the police would file a petition requesting it to consider additional evidence which had been collected by the special investigating team (SIT) constituted after the acquittals.
The team is primarily investigating how the case was botched up. Gupta tried to impress on the court how the police had come across proof to show how evidence was tampered with leading to the two-weapon theory.
She referred to an application which she had moved a few months back seeking direction from the court to conduct a ballistic test on the live cartridge and the empty shells recovered from the spot.
In that application, the police had alleged manipulation (deletion and addition) by the forensic laboratory experts. The court is yet to consider that plea.
Today she claimed before the bench that the investigators, in absence of direct evidence, had tried to link the case through circumstantial evidence. The judges, however, did not seem to agree with her.
"We do not need direct evidence. You do not say anywhere that it was the licensed weapon of Manu Sharma which had fired the bullet killing the victim," said the judges.
When Gupta admitted that the witnesses in the case said "everything except stating that it was Manu Sharma who shot at Jessica Lall," the bench asked her: "Two shots were fired. One hit the roof. Did you get the projectile which went into the roof?"