Order on Nanda's plea reserved

The Delhi High Court on Monday reserved till tomorrow its verdict on Sanjeev Nanda, prime accused in the BMW hit-and-run case.

The Delhi High Court on Monday reserved till tomorrow its verdict on Sanjeev Nanda, prime accused in the BMW hit-and-run case, challenging the trial court order summoning an eye-witness Sunil Kulkarni for deposition.

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Justice B N Chaturvedi, in light of the eye-witness who is scheduled to depose tomorrow in the trial court said he will deliver his order on Tuesday.

Nanda approached the Court after the trial court on March 19 had allowed two applications filed by the prosecution -- seeking court's permission to take Nanda's blood sample and to summon Kulkarni for testimony.

On September 30, 1999, Kulkarni was dropped by the prosecution from being examined after two other eye-witnesses Manoj Mallik and Hari Shankar turned hostile in the case.

Challenging the order of the trial court, senior advocate R K Anand, appearing for Nanda, contended that the prosecution had dropped the witness after the court's approval and that order of the court could not be reviewed by it.

Accepting that dropping Kulkarni as a prosecuting witness was a mistake committed by the police, the public Prosecutor, however, said that there was nothing wrong in summoning him.

Nanda, grandson of former Navy chief S M Nanda, along with three others had allegedly killed six people including three police personnel, near Lodhi Hotel on January 10, 1999.

The prosecution alleged that Nanda, who was driving, was in an inebriated state along with his friends Manik Kapoor and Sidharth Gupta at the time of the accident.