Hostile witness to face action

Fri, Mar 21 02:10 AM

Taking note of the disturbing trend of witnesses turning hostile in high profile cases, a city court has ordered initiation of criminal proceedings against Suresh Kumar Kukreja, a key witness in the Shivani Bhatnagar murder case. Kukreja is one of the 51 prosecution witnesses who turned hostile in this case.

Additional Sessions Judge Rajinder Kumar Shastri, who convicted former Haryana DGP (Prisons) R.K. Sharma and three others in the nine-year-old murder case, said: "It appears that the said witness had deliberately told a lie before the court." Holding that it was a punishable offence, the Judge said: "A complaint is being lodged to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate concerned seeking initiation of proceedings against said witness.

" Kukreja, a 'family friend' of Sharma, had in October 2002 given his statement to a magistrate. The Delhi based businessman had admitted that Sharma was using his mobile phone during an official visit to Pune between January 18 to 23, 1999.

R.K. Sharma had used Kukreja's phone to remain in touch with Sri Bhagwan during the period when they wanted to kill Shivani. The assailants had made their first attempt as per the conspiracy.

But, as Shivani was not home, they ultimately succeeded on January 23. According to the prosecution, Sharma had purposely planned the Pune visit to create an alibi.

When Kukreja recorded his statement under section 164 of the criminal procedure code (CrPc), before a Magistrate he had admitted handing over his phone to Sharma in Pune. "Later Sharma sent the SIM card of the phone to my residence in Delhi from Bombay, which I received on January 25, 1999," he had said.

Contradicting his statement recorded earlier, Kukreja denied giving his mobile to Sharma at any point of time. He said the police had pressurised him to give the earlier statement.

Kukreja, however, supported the prosecution case partially. He admitted the number of the particular cell phone belonged to him and that it was in Pune during the relevant period.

He further told the court that the cell phone used to remain with one of the staff members working at his Pune office. Kukreja, however, denied having knowledge of who used the cell phone at that point in time.

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