INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - August 1st - August 31st - 2008
SENIOR LAWYERS R K ANAND, I U KHAN DEBARRED FOR 4 MONTHS FROM COURTS
The Delhi High Court found senior lawyers R K Anand and I U Khan guilty of the contempt of court and debarred them from appearing in the High Court and all Delhi courts for next four months for influencing a witness in the BMW hit-and-run case.
A division bench comprising Justices Manmohan Sarin and Madan B Lokur held that the lawyers had lowered the dignity of the court by influencing Sanjiv Kulkarni, the witness during the pendency of the case.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2000 each on the lawyers and asked the Bar Council of Delhi to explore the possibilities of cancelling their bar licenses.
During sting operation done by a private satellite, R K Anand, who is the lawyer of Sanjeev Nanda, the main accused in the case, was caught in camera offering money to the witness to change his testimony in Nanda's favour.
Mr Khan, who was the prosecution lawyer, was also allegedly caught influencing Kulkarni in the favour of the accused.
The senior lawyers were shown corroborating to have outcome of the case in Nanda's favour.
The High Court had taken suo-moto cognizance of the offence and issued notices to the lawyers for contempt of the court and lowering the dignity of the legal system.
Sanjeev Nanda allegedly ran over seven people killing six of them in January 1999. The case is still pending in the lower court.
Nanda is the grandson of Admiral S M Nanda and son of arms dealer Suresh Nanda. He is currently out on bail.
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