E-Paper
Lies that cops told the court
THE DELHI Police, perhaps, could not have done more damage to the Jessica Lall murder case. They lied and concocted stories in the court, fudged the test identification parade and failed to link even the simplest of evidence with the accused.
THE DELHI Police, perhaps, could not have done more damage to the Jessica Lall murder case. They lied and concocted stories in the court, fudged the test identification parade and failed to link even the simplest of evidence with the accused.
In his judgment, additional sessions judge S.L. Bhayana said: “I hold that the prosecution has miserably failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt against any of the accused persons.” A look at the judgment tells you where the police messed up.
The court order says that the police had shown accused Manu Sharma to public witness Malini Ramani and her parents on May 7, 1999, at the police station before the test identification parade (TIP). “So, this identification is no identification in the eyes of law…. Conducting the TIP was only a farce,” the order says.
The order says the police cooked a story on the recovery of the black Tata Safari, which, the prosecution claimed, had been used by the accused the night Jessica was murdered. The police admitted during cross-examination that they had not recorded the statement of any witness to prove that the accused had used the vehicle.
Also, the order says that no chance prints were lifted from the vehicle. “It would have been a valuable piece of evidence… but the police did not lift chance prints. So very important piece of evidence is not available on record.”
On the recovery of the vehicle, the order says the statement of public witness Sunil Kumar, a sub-inspector, gave away the story. The vehicle had been recovered at Karnal and not in UP (as the police had claimed). The “police had concocted a story”, the order says.
It also says that the police had made up the story of “broken pieces of glass” in the vehicle to prove the prosecution case. The prosecution failed to connect the mobile number (9811096893) with Manu.
