JODHPUR: Trial of
Bhanwari Devi abduction and murder case will now proceed without the “much-awaited” prosecution witness Amber B. Carr, a DNA expert from Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the US. The period of wait for
Carr
granted by the
Supreme Court ended on Thursday.
CBI special counsel
Ashok Joshi said that since Carr has not appeared in the court for examination despite repeated summons, the trial court had now decided to proceed with defence witness. “On September 21, the accused would be submitting the list of their witnesses as they would produce evidence in their defence. This would be followed by their examination,” said Joshi.
Though the CBI had once again sought permission from the court to issue fresh summon to Carr, but the presiding officer
Sushma Pareek
refused to grant permission to the CBI and directed the defence to proceed with defence witnesses.
It may be noted that the trial of the case had commenced in May 2012 with examination of the prosecution witnesses. The last prosecution witness except Carr had been examined in September 2018. But the trial had stuck since then for want of Carr, as she did not appear in the court despite 22 summons between May 2017 and September 14, 2021.
The CBI had, meanwhile, moved the high court with a prayer to allow the examination of Carr through video conferencing, but the high court had rejected the plea directing the trial court to issue a fresh summon to Carr.
The CBI had, then moved Supreme Court with a SLP and the apex court had granted the CBI, a period of two months to produce Carr in the court with a condition that if the CBI failed to produce her in two months, the SLP would itself be considered rejected.
“Since this period was over on Thursday, the evidence of Carr was deemed shut and the court has decided to proceed with the examination of the defence witnesses from next hearing on September 21,” said Joshi.
For the CBI, Carr is a very important witness as she was the one, who had carried out DNA examination of the charred bones, obtained by the CBI from a canal in Jaloda village, which had been linked to Bhanwari Devi.
According to experts, in order to get Carr in the court again, the CBI may consider filing a review petition against SLP in the Supreme Court or even pitch for her examination through video conferencing, which has become popular feature of legal procedure these days.
Start a Conversation
Post comment