New Delhi: The verdict in the BMW case is out but still in the dock are witnesses who have turned hostile in high-profile cases.
Out of fear or greed, they changed their stands, changing the course of the trials as well.
The BMW trial was no different. Two main eyewitnesses backtracked on their testimonies. In fact, a sting operation revealed one of them, Sunil Kurkarni, was bribed by both prosecution and defence.
That's the tone of most such cases. Model Shayan Munshi was one of the 32 witnesses who turned hostile in the Jessica Lall murder case. His testimony sparked off speculation of a second gunman, the theory which lead to main convict Manu Sharma's initial acquittal.
Recalls Jessica’s sister Sabrina of Munshi, “We weren't sure of what he's going to say but I definitely didn't expect this - two different men and two different guns. I did not have my hopes pinned on him - that he would identify Manu Sharma - but (thought he would) at least stick to what really happened.”
In the Nitish Katara murder case too, witnesses buckled under pressure of convict Vikas Yadav's money and muscle power.
Neelam Katara, Nitish Katara's mother, says, “Many people I knew in Ghaziabad said that we had come back from the occasion. Bharti standing up and saying that it was not her telephone, one of his friends in court standing there and saying, ‘i just knew him, we were not very good friends’, there was a police person who also changed his stand; these things kept happening.”
Chief Justice of India has, on several occasions, opposed the idea of a witness protection programme, citing lack of resources and manpower as main reasons.
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