Mattoo case first, Jessica case later: HC

New Delhi, July 31 (UNI) The Delhi High Court said today that further arguments on Jessica Lal murder case would be heard only after the hearings on Priyadarshini Mattoo case had concluded.

The division bench of RS Sodhi and PK Bhasin ordered that both Priyadarshini Mattoo and Jessica cases would occupy the court for so long that both the cases could not be taken simultaneously.

The court can only hear either Mattoo case or Jessica case at one time, the judges said. So, now that the dates for Mattoo case have already been posted for August 31, Jessica Lal murder case will have to wait, they observed.

According to the counsels, it will effectively mean that hearings on Mattoo case would take three months after which arguments on Jessica case would resume.

The judges also severely criticised Delhi Police for their shabby approaches when state counsel Mukta Gupta sought court's permission to send the two cartridges of the weapon to a board of experts for their conclusive opinion.

''What have you been doing since 1999 when the incident occurred, the court asked wondering as to why they took 7 years to wake up to it,''.

''Whether both the cartridges had been fired from the same weapon holds the key to the whole case. If it were found to have been fired from the two weapons, the prosecution case would fail. Still you took so long time.'' they said.

It may be mentioned here that the main accused Manu Sharma had fired two bullets which allegedly killed Jessica Lal.

Although the prosecution says that both the bullets had been fired from the same weapon, Manu's counsel says that both the bullets fired were from two different weapons, an argument which won him acquittal in the trial court.

The judges refused to even consider the application of Delhi Police, saying that they would consider it only after hearings on Mattoo case had concluded.

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