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Police file FIR against their own
BOWING TO intense public pressure, the Delhi Police have finally registered a fresh case with regard to the destruction and tampering of evidence in the Jessica Lall murder case.
BOWING TO intense public pressure, the Delhi Police have finally registered a fresh case with regard to the destruction and tampering of evidence in the Jessica Lall murder case.
Police chief K.K. Paul said on Monday a case under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence or giving false information to screen offenders), 218 (public servant framing incorrect record or writing with intent to save a person from punishment) and 34 (common intention) had been registered at the Mehrauli police station.
A special team under U.K. Katna, special commissioner (intelligence), and M.K. Sharma, ACP, will investigate the case. Paul remained non-committal on whether registering a fresh case meant that the police was going to reinvestigate the Jessica murder. "It depends on the way you interpret it," he said. "We've taken a major step so that justice is done in the Jessica Lall case, with prior legal opinion from additional solicitor general Gopal Subramanium."
The registration of the case brings in its ambit all those people -- including police officers and people present at Tamarind Court restaurant at the time of the murder -- who are suspected of having played a part in the destruction of crucial evidence and conniving with the accused.
Though the police have not named anyone in the FIR, sources said all senior officers involved in the probe -- including Amod Kanth (then joint commissioner, southern range), Sudhir Yadav (DCP, south), Vivek Gogia (additional DCP) -- and Bina Ramani and Malini Ramani (who hosted the party and allegedly washed the blood-stained floor) would be questioned soon. The sources did not rule out of the possibility of arrests in the coming weeks. The case FIR reads more like a charge-sheet against the investigating officers of the case and is more of a confession by the police that their officers tampered with the evidence, hid evidence from the court and leaked information to the accused.
