The Hindu : National : Row over seizure of arms licence in Jessica case

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 05, 2006

National

National

Row over seizure of arms licence in Jessica case

Staff Reporter

Police records do not corroborate claim

NEW DELHI: Let alone recover the weapon of offence allegedly used in the murder of Jessica Lal, the police could not even give conclusive proof of the arms licence being seized from the possession of the prime accused, Siddhartha Vashishtha alias Manu Sharma, on the day he was arrested.

Police record

While at one point the officer who prepared the arrest memo claimed to have recovered the arms licence, the records at the Mehrauli police station did not corroborate his claim.

According to the court order in the Jessica Lal murder case, counsel for the accused had submitted that Inspector Raman Lamba, prosecution witness No. 87, had deposed before the court stating that on May 6, 1999, the accused Manu Sharma had handed over the arms licence to him which was seized vide memo Ex. PW 80/B.

"The memo does not bear the signatures of Harish Ghai, advocate, who was present when the accused was produced before the police.

Mr. Ghai had signed the arrest memo of the accused Siddhartha but the seizure memo with regard to seizure of arms licence has not been signed by Mr. Ghai," the court said.

The court said Inspector Lamba had further stated that Mr. Ghai had refused to sign the seizure memo whereas Sub-Inspector Nirbhay Singh, prosecution witness No. 80, stated that only Inspector Lamba could explain why Mr. Ghai had not signed the seizure memo but he does not remember anything.

Evasive reply

"It is very evasive reply given by PW 87 and it shows that arm licence was never seized from accused Siddhartha Vashishta. As it does not bear the signatures of Harish Ghai who was present at the time of seizure of the same, the same has been planted on the accused in the case," the court added.

No mention of licence

Also, the defence counsel had submitted that the arms licence which was reportedly seized by Inspector Lamba from the accused had been deposited along with other articles with "malkhana muharir" of the Mehrauli police station, Head Constable Chhajju Ram, on May 6, 1999.

"But Head Constable Chhajju Ram has stated that Inspector Lamba had deposited with him on May 6, 1999, only one purse containing his photo, diary, video cassettes, etc, but there is no mention of an arms licence in the `malkhana' register having been deposited on May 6, 1999, by Inspector Lamba. This further proves that no such arms licence was ever seized by Inspector Lamba on May 6, 1999," the court said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail