Plea for prosecutor change today

The trial was adjourned by UT District and Sessions Judge Beant Singh Bedi, who took over today, on the defence counsel’s request. At the very onset, the counsel sought time for arguing the matter.

The defence counsel had earlier submitted an application before the then UT District and Sessions Judge, Amar Dutt, seeking directions forbidding special prosecutor S.K. Saxena from conducting the prosecution case.They had alleged that Samsher Singh’s alleged confessional statement was prepared by him and his presence was "causing prejudice to the accused".

The application had been moved almost two-and-a-half years after the recording of evidence began in the case and at a time when day-to-day proceedings had been ordered by the then Sessions Judge.

The CBI, on the other hand, had denied the defence counsel’s allegations regarding accused Samsher Singh being interrogated in the presence of special prosecutor along with three other officials.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (CBI) S.N. Saxena, in the reply submitted before the court, had stated that allegations were baseless as S.K. Saxena was never associated with the investigation of the case

.Samsher Singh was interrogated by him, along with two Senior Superintendents of Police, Bhupinder Singh and Harbhajan Ram, on December 15, 1995 after being formally arrested with court’s permission on December 11, same year, he had further stated.

The accused was brought to Delhi and produced before the court by him with Samsher’s prayers for getting his confession recorded. The matter was assigned to the Metropolitan Magistrate by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate and Samsher was produced by him and legal advisor Y.K. Saxena and not by S.K. Saxena.