The Delhi police on Tuesday described Shyan Munshi, the key eyewitness in the Jessica Lal [Images] murder case who had turned hostile, as a "liar" and told the Delhi high court that the trial court erred by relying on his statements.
Munshi, the model-turned-Bollywood actor, who was also the complainant in the case, had not supported the prosecution during the trial and had instead talked about the two weapon theory that led to the demolition of the case, police said.
"Munshi in his first statement before the police did not talk of the two arms theory at all and only talked of one weapon-two shots, which the prosecution had been pursuing," Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanian told the Bench comprising Justice R S Sodhi and Justice P K Bhasin.
Delhi police had throughout maintained that two shots were fired with the same weapon and one of it had hit Lal, who allegedly had refused to serve liquor to Manu Sharma, the main accused in the case.
The ASG said his statement was unreliable as after the incident, he told the police that he had chased only one person, but before the court he changed that version and talked about running towards two persons.
"At no point of time Munshi talked of chasing two people and two weapons and suddenly before the trial court, he spoke about the two-weapon theory and two persons," the ASG said.
When asked by the bench what the CFSL report had opined on the issue, the ASG said the report produced after the trial court's order, did describe the two weapon theory tentatively and that the shots may have been fired from two weapons.
Pointing out the inaccuracies in the judgment rendered by the trial court, which heavily relied on the CFSL report while dealing with the case, ASG said, "What was the basis to say two firearms were used when no firearm was recovered."
He, however, submitted that there was no need to have forensic evidence if there was direct ocular evidence.
The bench concluded the day's hearing by saying that the prosecution has not answered its query about the types of bullets, short or long, which were used by the murderer.
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