Police question key witness in Jessica case

New Delhi, May 30: South Africa-based businessman Deepak Bhojwani, a key witness in the Jessica Lal murder case who had claimed to have seen the alleged killers fleeing after the shooting, has been questioned by the Delhi police.

Bhojwani, a close friend of Jessica and the first witness of the prosecution to testify against the main accused Manu Sharma, was interrogated by the Special Investigation Team of Delhi Police yesterday, police said today.

Bhojwani had seen Manu Sharma, who allegedly shot at Jessica on the night of April 29, 1999, and Vikas Yadav, running out of the Tamarind court bar where the model was shot, police said.

Bhojwani, one of the few witnesses who did not turn hostile during the trial, has been often stating that he was willing to cooperate with the Delhi police.

In fact, Bhojwani was the first person to record his statement saying he saw Manu Sharma running out of the Tamarind Court restaurant after allegedly killing Jessica.

However, the trial court of additional sessions judge S L Bhayana, which acquitted all the nine accused in the Jessica case in February this year, had declared Bhojwani as a "false witness" as his name was not on the invitation list for the party hosted by socialite Bina Ramani on that fateful day.

The Delhi police, in March, filed a revision petition in the Delhi High Court against the order of the additional sessions judge.

The acquittal by the trial court came after several key witnesses in the case turned hostile. Among those who turned hostile were actor Shyan Munshi, the bartender in the tamarind court restaurant, Karan Rajput and Shiv Das, an electrician.

The revision petition filed by the Delhi police in the high court said that ''the impugned judgement of February 21 is manifestly wrong, bad in law and contrary to the facts and evidence on record''.

UNI