1999 hit-and-run case: three more walk free

The Supreme Court on Wednesday set free three persons facing charges of destruction of evidence in the 1999 hit-and-run case involving former Naval Chief Admiral SM Nanda's grandson Sanjeev.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday set free three persons facing charges of destruction of evidence in the 1999 hit-and-run case involving former Naval Chief Admiral SM Nanda's grandson Sanjeev.

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Pulling up the Delhi Police for a shoddy investigation, a bench of Justices Deepak Verma and KS Radhakrishnan set aside concurring verdicts of the trial and high courts convicting the trio — Rajiv Gupta, chief executive officer of MGF and his two employees Bhola Nath and Shyam Singh.

All had been accused of cleaning up the blood stains from Sanjeev's BMW car. The vehicle had mowed down six persons early in the morning on January 10, 1999. The high court had sentenced Gupta to six months in jail while his employees were awarded a three-month imprisonment.

Acquitting them, the apex court said the police had failed to establish tampering allegations against them. "No credible evidence was recorded... to show who washed the (BMW) car (to remove blood stains)," the bench said. It also questioned as to why the police did not lift fingerprints from the car to establish who tried to destroy the evidence.

The court also reserved its verdict on the police's plea, challenging the July 2009 high court order that had reduced Sanjeev's sentence from five to two years.