Sanjeev Nanda BMW hit and run case

Sanjeev Nanda has been sentenced to 5 years imprisonment in the BMW hit and run case. Co accused Rajiv gupta has got 1 year in Jail, Bhola Shyam has got 6 months. Nanda has already undergoe 9 months in jail, so this will be deducted from the five years.

anjeev Nanda

Sanjeev Nanda (born 1978)is the grandson of S M Nanda, an Indian ex-Chief of Naval Staff, turned businessman from New Delhi who is the prime accused to have run over and killed six people, including three policemen, in a drunken state when he drove his BMW car at high speed througha police checkpoint. He has been convicted of the culpable homicide (under section 304, but not for rash and negligence driving) by a Delhi court early Sep 2008. He has been sentenced 5 years in prison. Manik Kapoor the co-accused was acquited. Sanjeev Nanda's father, Lt. Commander Suresh Nanda (ex-Indian Navy), heads the arms supply firm Crown Corporation. His grandfather S.M. Nanda, was onceIndia's Chief of Naval Staff; after retirement he joined the arms tradingbusiness. Sanjeev Nanda is a management graduate from INSEAD and Wharton.

Subsequently Sanjeev and five others were tried in a high profilecourt case that dragged on for many years. Ultimately the court did not find any of the witnesses reliable and the defense was able to make the case that it was perhaps a truckand not the BMW that had caused the deaths. All the accused were released, resulting in a sharp drop in publicconfidence in the legal system, since it was widely believed that the witnesses had been bought off cite web
first=Ruksh
last=Chatterji
publisher = NDTV
title = BMW case: Still searching for justice
date= 2003-08-03
url= http://origin.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?template=&id=41113&callid=1 |accessdate=2006-08-16] . Sunil Kulkarni is a witness that didn't turn hostile in a Delhi Additional sessions court. [ [http://www.ibnlive.com/news/india/05_2007/bmw-case-witness-identifies-nanda-40766.html BMW case witness identifies Nanda] ] The case is continuing in Delhi at present. Independently of progress in this case, in March 2008, Sanjeev Nanda and his father were arrested in Mumbai in connection with the Barak Missile Scandal.

The BMW hit-and-run case

The incident appears to have unfolded as follows:

The incident occurred at 4:50 AM early morning of January 10, 1999. Sanjeev Nanda was returning from a late night party in Gurgaon with friends Manik Kapoor & Siddharth Gupta. Both were in their early twenties and came from influential business families - Manik's father Sudhir Kapoor runs a thriving export business was one of the closest to the Nanda Family.Sanjiv had apparently been instructed by his parents not to drive that night, but was at the wheel anyway. There was a police checkpoint on Lodhi Road and it appears that the constable mayhave challenged the car, though it is also possible that the car was going so fast that it was out of control. In any event, it is alleged that Sanjeev's BMW crashed through all the people at the police checkpoint, immediately killing two constables - Rajan Kumar (25) (of 86th Battalion of the CRPF), Ram Raj(38) of Delhi Home Guard, and two others - Abdul Nasir(30) and Gulab (32), who were apparently being interrogated. Another policeman, Peru Lal (40) of the Delhi Home Guard, along with Mehendi Hassan, died later in hospital. The seventh victim, Manoj (32), survived, but is untraceable today. cite news
publisher = India Network News Digest
title = A day's custody for three in BMW case
url= http://listserv.indnet.org/cgi/wa.cgi?A2=ind9901&L=india-l&P=805
date=1999-01-12
accessdate=2006-08-17]

After running through the policemen, he allegedly stopped the car to check the damage, saw people under the car, and according tothe prosecution, at this pointco-passenger Manik Kapoor said: ‘‘Let’s go,’’ and they quickly drove away cite web
publisher = Indian Express
title = BMW CASE: Nanda says he had beer that night
date= 2003-01-03
url= http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=72227
accessdate=2006-08-16] . The car was then driven to Siddharth Gupta's house in Golf Links, whereSiddharth's father Rajiv Gupta, who heads the finance firm Motor GeneralFinance, instructed watchman Bhola Nath and driver Shyam Singh Rana to cleanthe bumpers and bonnet of the car of the blood and vestiges of the victims.Subsequently the police charged these three with destroying evidence. A few days later, a witness Sunil Kulkarni, came forward todescribe the scene. At the time of the crash, hewas on his way to the railway station.He deposed as follows on Jan 16, 1999: :"They were driving very fast. The car went to the side, crushing two people. A few others were thrown away. The driver got out and looked at the damage done to the car. Then the other person in the car came out and looked behind the car. Then they quickly drove off. I came to the police on the 15th because of my guilty conscience."

NDTV sting operation

The prominent criminal lawers involved in the case were R.K. Anand and I.U. Khan. NDTV carried out a sting operation in which they were caught on camera offering money to Sunil Kulkarni. Later the Delhi High Court barred the advocates from practising for four months. [ [http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/03/stories/2008090360271200.htm Sanjeev Nanda’s friend acquitted] ]

Thus prosecution droped Mumbai-based Sunil Kulkarni condemning his as a won-over man.

The investigation

The vehicle's broken registration plate was found on the scenethe next morning. A 100-yard stretch near the police checkpoint was strewn with body parts andsevered limbs amid pools of blood.Preliminary investigations revealed that the car would have been going at140 km/h when it hit the victims. cite news
first=Varsha
last=Bhosle
publisher = rediff.com
title = Purchase of absolution
date= 1999-02-04
url= http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/feb/04varsha.htm
accessdate=2006-08-16]

Within a few hours of the incident, Inspector Jagdish Pandey of the Police Control Room of Delhi Policewas able to trace the BMW by trailing the oil leak from theaccident-spot to Rajiv Gupta's garage. cite news
publisher = The Tribune, Chandigarh
title = Police team rewarded for nabbing mishap suspects
url= http://www.tribuneindia.com/1999/99jan12/nation.htm
date=1999-01-11
accessdate=2006-08-17] They found the one-monthold car, purchased in his sister Sonali Nanda's name, with foreign numberplates, which had not been registered in India. Attemptsto clean it were still in progress. Sanjeev and his friends were arrested, buthis clothes, and those of the others who helped clean the car, werenever found.When Sanjeev and his friends were firstcharged with "Culpable homicide" in court, a gaggle of Delhi's elite descended on Patiala House courts, including ex-Admiral Nanda himself.

The Witnesses

*Manoj Malik
*Harishankar [ [http://www.ibnlive.com/news/india/05_2007/bmw-case-witness-identifies-nanda-40766.html BMW case witness identifies Nanda : Sanjeev Nanda, BMW, accident, eyewitness, statement : IBNLive.com : CNN-IBN ] ]

The trial

During the trial, the only survivor, Manoj, saidthat it might have been a truck that hit them. Since theother six witnesses were dead, Manoj was the only voice. It iswidely believed that he had been paid off, and hasmysteriously disappeared thereafter. Another witness, Sunil Kulkarni had volunteered to have seen theincident, but the elite defence team was able to discredit him and he was portrayed as having been"put up" by the Delhi Police.

In Sanjeev Nanda's testimony (in 92 questions over 14 pages),he told Judge S.L. Bayana that he was not driving the car and was not thecar's owner. He said it was his sister's car and he hadnothing to do with the accident.

Sanjeev Nanda spent a few months in jail but was released on bail in May1999. He was set a surety of a Rs 45 crore (USD 9 million), subsequently reduced to Rs. 15 crore (USD 3 million). Sanjeev, it turned out, was a British national. On 2nd September, 2008, Sanjeev Nanda was convicted by a Delhi court for mowing down six persons in the nine-year-old BMW hit-and-run case and can face a ten-year prison term.

The BMW case joins a long list of similar cases. A few years back, Puru Raj Kumar, the son of Bollywood Actor Raj Kumar, hadrun over two pavement dwellers. He had been fined Rs. 35000 (about USD1000).

Timeline

1999

* 10th January, A speeding BMW drives through a police check-point in Delhi and kills 6 people.

2007

* 18th May, key whitness Sunil Kulkarni says Sanjeev Nanda was 1 of the 3 people in the BMW [ [http://www.ibnlive.com/news/witness-testimony-turned-bmw-case/41837-3.html Witness' testimony turned BMW case] ]
* 1st June, Sanjeev Nanda says in court that he was not in the BMWFact|date=September 2008

2008 march
* Sanjeev and his father suresh nanda was arrested from a mumbai hotel for allegedly bribing an income tax official. Suresh nanda was also once accused by CBI for puchasing barak missiles from israel 8 years ago. [ http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/03/stories/2008090360271200.htm ] Both were bailed out in that case.

2008
* September 2nd 2008, Sanjeev Nanda was convicted by a Delhi court for mowing down six persons in the nine-year-old BMW hit-and-run case and can face a ten-year prison term.
* September 5th 2008, Sanjeev Nanda gets five year jail term for mowing down six persons in the nine-year-old BMW hit-and-run case [ [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/BMW_case_Sanjeev_Nanda_gets_five_years_in_jail/articleshow/3447078.cms Nanda gets 5 yrs jail, to appeal in HC] ]

Nanda Family's Corruption history

Following the incident there was considerable debate about the Nandafamily and the source of its wealth. One year after the incident, the Tehelka tapes revealed possible influence Lt-Cmdr Suresh Nanda and Admiral SM Nanda may have had with the Indian Ministry of Defence in swinging deals. In these tapes, the reporter is posing as a representative of the fictionallarge arms supplier "West End". At one point, the Samata Party national treasurer RK Jain is trying toconvince Tehelka about his prowess in swinging deals. He mentions how in the firstdefence deal that he was involved in as the party treasurer, Suresh Nanda of Crown Corporation had paid Samata Party Rs 1 crore to swingthe Rs 250-crore (USD 60 million)order for Armoured Recovery Vehicles (ARV) in favour of a Slovakian company.

* "Samata Party treasurer R.K. Jain": "Nanda approached me. Czechoslovakia's price was the lowest, second Slovakian, third was the Poland."
* "Tehelka": "Haan, Haan."
* "R.K. Jain": "He said, 'I will give you one crore rupees in advance'."
* "Tehelka": "Okay."
* "R.K. Jain": "You get disapproved the last one. Czechoslovakia because they are so lower that we cannot match their price."
* "Tehelka": "Okay."
* "R.K. Jain": "If you can push him out. Delegation is going on to the... delegation has been ordered to go to Czechoslovakia. Stop this delegation, and technically reject this company. Here are the documents."
* "Tehelka": "Hmm."
* "R.K.Jain": "By which it's proved that this company is closed for the last two years. They will start only after getting this order."
* "Tehelka": "Yeah, yeah."
* "R.K. Jain": "I will give one crore rupees. And I will give you... if they are technically disapproved, then you are my agent."
* "Tehelka": "Yeah."
* "R.K. Jain": "For this particular... perks... and I will give you so much of commission."
* "Tehelka": "Okay."
* "R.K. Jain": "I said, 'Fine.' He gave me the correspondence. I took the correspondence to George.":(the then Defence minister George Fernandes was from Samata Party)
* "Tehelka": "Hmm."
* "R.K. Jain": "And he said, 'All right, I'll reject it.' He is a very intelligent man."...
* "Tehelka": Okay, it is manipulated.
* "R.K. Jain": He wrote straight away on the file himself. He never goes and orders to a Joint Secretary. He wrote it himself, and sent the file back. Nanda gave me one crore rupees. He called me, "Yes, Mr. Jain, the file has come down. Like you know George…"
* "Tehelka": Yeah, yeah cite web
last=
publisher = Tehelka.com
title = Tehelka Tapes (transcript)
url= http://www.tehelka.com/home/20041009/operation/investigation21.htm
page=21
accessdate=2006-08-17] .

Jain also said that he had received another Rs 1 crore for the Samata Party from Suresh Nanda to help swing the contract for an air-to-air and surface-to-surface missile system for the Indian Navy. Nanda was an agent for the Israeli Barak missile system. cite web
last = Srivastava
first = Mihir
publisher = Tehelka
title = Finally, West End Lands Jain In Jail
url= http://www.tehelka.com/story_main16.asp?filename=Ne031106Finally_west.asp
accessdate=2006-08-16]

These tapes were the result of a clandestine
sting operation and are not admissible as evidencein court. However, the Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested R.K. Jain in February 2006 in connection with its own investigations spurred by the Tehelka tapes cite news
last=PTI
publisher = Outlook
title = R K Jain arrested five years after Tehelka expose
url= http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=366868
date=2006-02-07
accessdate=2006-08-16] .

ee also

* Jessica Lall, a Delhi-based Model shot in a bar in front of dozens of witnesses by then-politician's son Manu Sharma. Initially, the accused was acquitted after witnesses turn hostile in a low level court, but was subsequently given a lifer in the Delhi High Court, following testimony of a key witness Bina Ramani, who did not turn hostile. Hostile witnesses such as Shayan Munshi are being tried for prejury for turing hostile in court.
* Priyadarshini Mattoo Law student raped and killed by a classmate stalker who is the son of a high ranking police officer. Detectives were influenced by the policeman to go easy on the killer, and thus the case was transferred to the CBI. Murderer found guilty after dogged pursuit of justice by the media and the victim's family, and sentenced to death [ [http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=156&page=11 Mattoo case: Justice delayed, denied and awarded] ] .

* Satyendra Dubey

* Shanmughan Manjunath

References

External links

* [http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1807/18070040.htm Sukumar Muralidharan (Frontline) on Defence corruption]