Socialite Bina Ramani and aspiring model-cum actor Shyan Munshi whose "conflicting" testimonies that eventually led to the acquittal of the accused in the Jessica Lall murder case Tuesday came under the scanner of the Delhi High Court.
The Bench comprising Justice R S Sodhi and Justice P K Bhasin expressed dissatisfaction at the manner in which the witnesses failed to give proper testimonies in the case.
"What is this? What type of English is this?," the Bench remarked referring to the statements of Bina Ramani's submissions like "I think he was the same person," I guess," "I believe," "I think" which she stated at various stages of her testimonies during the trial proceedings when she was asked to identify the prime accused.
Government counsel Mukta Gupta told the court that Bina Ramani in her testimony had stated that she confronted Manu Sharma immediately after the shootout and asked him to handover the pistol and had also asked her husband George Malihot to chase him.
However, during the trial proceedings, when asked to identify whether Manu Sharma was the same person, Bina Ramani observed, "I think he is the same person," a statement rejected by the trial judge as lacking in clarity and was one of the main reason for acquittal of all the nine accused in the case.
"Bengalis know Hindi. How is that he says he cannot read or write Hindi. But at least he could understand Hindi, isn't it?" the Bench asked when the prosecution pointed out that Shyan Munshi initially stated that the two bullets were fired from the same pistol but later retracted to say that the bullets were fired from different weapons.
Munshi who turned hostile in the case justified his retraction on the plea that he did not know Hindi but merely went by the statements recorded by the police in the case.
