Advocate Somnath Bharti, now Delhi law Minister’s conduct towards evidence tampering is a throwback to when lawyer RK Anand was held in contempt in the infamous BMW hit-and-run case.
RK Anand was censured by the Delhi High Court and convicted for contempt of court. The Supreme Court has also upheld the conviction. Anand was the defence counsel while another noted lawyer IU Khan was the prosecution counsel. The Supreme Court Bar Association had suspended RK Anand on charges of attempting to influence a witness in the BMW case. A TV news channel had carried out a sting operation that exposed the collusion between Anand and Khan to tamper with evidence and win over star witness Sunil Kulkarni in the BMW case.
The court had stripped him of the designation of senior advocate for contempt of court by attempting to influence the course of justice as a defence counsel in the hit-and-run case. The Supreme Court after accepting his unconditional apology and offer to exclusively give free legal aid to the poor for one year directed him to pay `21 lakh to the Bar Council of India. “The Bar Council shall give the money to a law college attended mostly by children from the underprivileged and deprived sections of society,” the bench had said.
The case involved Sanjeev Nanda, who was driving the BMW that mowed down six people on January 10, 1999. Anand had moved the apex court against the Delhi High Court verdict, which had held him guilty for perverting the course of justice.