PTI

 
New Delhi, May 29: A key witness in the BMW hit-and-run case on Tuesday refused to identify Sanjeev Nanda, grandson of former naval chief S M Nanda, in a court here as the person who alighted from the driving seat of the car just after it mowed down six people in January 1999.

Sunil Kulkarni, a Mumbai-based trader and an eyewitness to the incident, however, said that prime accused Sanjeev was one of the occupants of the offending vehicle.

Deposing before Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Kumar, Kulkarni said that it was a "healthy and hefty" boy who had come out from the driving seat of the BMW car.

He, however, told the court that the said man was not present in the court room.

Kulkarni was earlier discarded by the court as unreliable but was brought back as witness on a plea by the prosecution.

The defence tried to stall the prosecution move by approaching the High Court which cleared him for giving testimony.

Kulkarni reiterated that it was police pressure which led to certain variations in his statements made at different occasions.

Nanda along with three others is facing trial for allegedly mowing down six people, including three police personnel, with his BMW car near Lodhi Hotel here on January 10, 1999.

He was allegedly driving the offending vehicle and was in an inebriated state along with his friends Manik Kapoor and Sidharth Gupta at the time of the accident.