Witnesses who did a U-turn told to explain why

The division bench, which handed life imprisonment to Manu Sharma, issued notices to over 30 witnesses in the case and directed them to appear in the court on the next date of hearing.

Issuing notices to witnesses — from model and film star Shayan Munshi to Shiv Dass Yadav, who was an electrician at the Qutab Colonnade where Jessica was shot — the High Court asked them to appear in person and furnish their replies on why action should not be initiated against them, besides seeking to know what made them resile from their initial statements.

The court’s order today may put pressure on the Government to expedite the proposed amendments in the Criminal Procedure Code to ensure protection of witnesses.

As the High Court went on to take suo motu cognisance of the issue by resorting to discretion granted to a higher court under the Criminal Procedure Code, it expressed its displeasure over why the sessions judge, then ASJ S L Bhayana, failed to invoke remedies available under the law. “The trial court has chosen not to invoke this provision of law despite taking note of the fact that a large number of witnesses had turned hostile,” said the Bench.

“Almost 100 people were there at the party when she was shot at point blank, but no one except a few had the courage to raise their voice,” the court observed.

“Witnesses turning hostile appears to be the order of day,” observed the two Judges today adding that judiciary also has to shoulder the responsibility in stopping this practice.

Justices R S Sodhi and P K Bhasin said: “The courts must put an end to this kind of attitude of witnesses turning hostile in order to thwart the course of justice.”

Expressing their “surprise” at the long list of witnesses who resiled from their statements in this sensational case “which shocked the confidence of the society in the criminal justice system,” the court pointed out: “To our utter surprise, we found that during the trial as many as 32 witnesses including three eyewitnesses of the murder and one ballistic expert had to be declared hostile by the prosecution.”