Prosecutor dropped in India sting

By Tinku Ray
BBC News, Delhi

The public prosecutor in a high-profile trial in Delhi has been dropped after he was alleged to have tried to bribe a key witness to change his testimony.

The witness says he secretly filmed the prosecutor, IU Khan, and a defence lawyer asking him to retract evidence. Mr Khan denies any wrong-doing.

The "BMW hit and run case" has been dragging on since 1999.

Sanjeev Nanda, the son of a wealthy arms dealer, is accused of running over and killing six people.

Mr Nanda is also the grandson of a former navy chief.

Shaky footage

The case was all but dead after most of the main prosecution witnesses changed their accounts.

But on Wednesday, the Delhi-based NDTV channel broadcast footage secretly recorded by witness Sunil Kulkarni.

NDTV says the shaky footage shows prosecutor IU Khan in collusion with defence lawyer RK Anand.

After being dismissed from the case Mr Khan denied any wrongdoing: "I had no knowledge of any of this."

According to reports, Sunil Kulkarni was walking down the street in the early hours of 10 January, 1999 when he saw a BMW run over and kill six people in Delhi.

In a statement to the police shortly afterwards, he identified Sanjeev Nanda as the driver of the car.

Consent

NDTV says that earlier this year Mr Kulkarni told the channel he was under pressure from both the prosecution and defence to change his testimony and that he offered to prove this by filming a meeting in secret.

Having made the film and handed it over to NDTV, he then withdrew his consent to NDTV broadcasting it, the channel says.

And in court on Tuesday, he said that Mr Nanda was one of the passengers in the BMW, but was not the driver.

NDTV decided to go ahead and broadcast the footage, saying it was in the public interest.

There have been a number of recent high-profile cases in India in which witnesses changed their testimony, amid accusations they had been bought off.

In one such case - the 1999 murder of model Jessica Lal - the lack of evidence led to the main accused being acquitted until an outcry led to a retrial and the verdict being overturned.