New Delhi: . The Delhi Police has admitted to major procedural lapses in its investigations into the the Jessica Lall case, admitting that they erred on multiple counts.
It will be remembered as the day the Delhi Police owned up to its incompetence in handling the Jessica Lall murder case.
First, the police admitted to a lapse in confronting the main witness Shayan Munshi when he turned hostile.
In his initial statement, Munshi said he had seen Manu Sharma shoot Jessica, but in court he said there had been two shots from different guns, and that he wasn't sure if Manu Sharma was one of the shooters.
Lapse number two - the Delhi Police said they made a mistake in not confronting the other key witness Bina Ramani, who named Manu Sharma in her intial statement to the police, but did not identify him later.
The third lapse was the police's failure to cross-examine Roop Singh, the ballistics expert from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory. It was Roop Singh who changed the laboratory's initial report to support Shayan Munshi's two-gun theory.
Lapse number four - the Delhi Police did not show the witnesses, Manu Sharma's photograph for identification, despite having seized it a day after the murder.
And finally - why was Manu Sharma's counsel Harish Ghai - who was witness to his surrender not made a witness or cross-examined?
The Lall family has for long suspected that they lost the case at the trial stage because the prosecutors and the investigators didn't do their job properly.
And with the High Court taking specific notice of these lapses, it seems their worst fears have come true.
Comments
0 comment