2nd witness turns hostile, jolts CBI
Giving a jolt to the prosecution and the CBI, Ram Avtar Sharma, a prosecution witness on Monday turned hostile while deposing before the court of additional sessions judge (ASJ) Sunita Gupta, claiming that he had not given shelter to one of the victims in connection with a 1984 anti-Sikh riot case in which senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar is an accused.
Out of total of three prosecution witnesses, Sharma is the second to turn hostile during the pendency of the trial.
“It is incorrect to suggest that Jagsher Singh alias Golu had also taken shelter in my house during that period or that I stated so in my statement (before CBI),” Sharma told the court.
“Had he taken shelter in my house, then I must have mentioned this fact in my statement because he was known to me,” the witness added “voluntarily”.
In his cross-examination by CBI, 49-year-old Sharma deposed that he was not making a false statement under pressure from Kumar.
He also testified that “It is incorrect to suggest that I have been pressurised by accused Kumar to resile from my statement. It is further incorrect to suggest that I have, in collusion with the accused, introduced the fact of Jagdish Kaur having taken shelter in my house in order to damage the prosecution case.”
He said “it is also incorrect that I knew the name of Jagsher Singh alias Golu very clearly and I buckled under pressure to deny that I knew his name Jagsher Singh and further obliged the accused by denying that he took shelter in our house during the riots.”
CBI had claimed that Jagsher had taken shelter in the house of Sharma at Raj Nagar here during the riots.
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