New Delhi: The accused in the 1996 Lajpat
Nagar blast case have approached a Delhi court seeking
transfer of the matter to a judge who was earlier conducting
the trial and was recently been transferred.
District and Sessions Judge G P Mittal, after taking
the application into the records, has fixed the matter for
order tomorrow.
The accused, including prime suspect Farooq Ahmed
Khan, said Additional Sessions Judge M K Nagpal, who had
been hearing the 13-year-old case for quite some time, has
been transferred, which would further prolong the trial.
They claimed it was against the principles of natural
justice and sought the transfer of the case to ASJ Nagpal for
its speedy disposal.
Meanwhile, Additional Sessions Judge Chandra Gupta,
who succeeded ASJ Nagpal, today recorded the statement of
prosecution witness Sanjeev Kumar, the then Junior Telecom
Officer Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir.
Kumar, recording his statement as 107th prosecution
witness, said he had provided the telephone call details,
allegedly of key accused Farooq Ahmed, to Jammu and Kashmir
Police on May 23, 1996.
The call details allegedly helped the police in
zeroing on the accused after the explosion that had rocked the
crowded Central Market in Lajpat Nagar in south Delhi on the
evening of May 21, 1996 which claimed 13 lives, besides
injuring 39 people and setting ablaze 14 buildings.
Bureau Report
