'List cases where Ramani is accused, witness'

A Delhi court asked the police to list all cases in which socialite Bina Ramani was either an accused or a witness.

A court in New Delhi on Thursday asked the police to list all cases in which socialite Bina Ramani was either an accused or a witness.

HT Image

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kamini Lau also directed the special investigation team (SIT) constituted by Delhi Police to investigate the destruction of evidence in the Jessica Lall murder case and to inform the court whether Ramani was an accused or a witness in this case.

Lau issued the direction when the prosecution informed her that the SIT was also probing the role of Ramani in destroying evidence in the Lall murder.

Ramani is a key witness in the murder case.

Lau issued the directions while hearing the bail application of Ramani in a cheating-cum-forgery case in which she had allegedly fudged papers to claim the ownership of Tamarind Court restaurant at Qutub Colonnade in south Delhi where Lall was fatally shot in the early hours of April 30, 1999.

Lau also reminded the police that Ramani was a witness in a Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) violation case against the self-styled god-man Chandraswami.

When counsel for Ramani informed the court she had helped the prosecution in the Jessica Lall murder case, Lau said so far as she knew about her deposition in the case, she had not helped the prosecution in it.

Sharma is currently lodged in the Tihar Central Jail in New Delhi. The police are prosecuting him in a murder case among others. A Delhi court had some years ago fined Ramani for serving liquor at Tamarind Court without a licence.

Lau had in July framed charges against Chandraswami in a FERA case in which he had transferred $ 200,000 to Ramani's Magi International.

The arguments on Ramani's bail application will continue on Friday.