Shivani Gadhavi
Published On: February 11, 2022 at 17:19 IST
The Rajasthan High Court on February 10, 2022 summoned the Additional Commissioner of Police, Jaipur, Ajay Pal Lamba, as a witness in connection with Asaram’s Appeal challenging his conviction by lower court in minor’s Rape case.
The Rajasthan High Court Bench of Justice Sandeep Mehta and Justice Vinod Kumar Bharwani was hearing the Petition filed by Asaram wherein he was challenging his conviction order by a lower Court.
At present, an Interlocutory Application was filed by Asaram, under Section 391 (Appellate Court may take further evidence or direct it to be taken) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, within which it was requested by the Appellant to summon the Additional Commissioner of Police, Ajay Pal Lamba as an additional Court Witness for cross-examination.
It was asked by the Counsel for the Appellant, Advocate Shri Kamat, that Mr. Lamba be summoned as a Witness, due to some excerpts in his recently published book called “Gunning for the Godman- The True Story Behind Asaram Bapu’s Conviction”. The Counsel stated that, in the book, it has been mentioned that video recording of the place where the crime took place was taken by the Officer.
Advocate Shri Kamat stated that before the publication of the book, the Appellant and the Counsel had no idea about the said video recording of the ‘Kutia’, where the crime took place. It was pointed out that the Victim never mentioned the ‘Kutia’ in the complaint or in the statement, but later on gave a description of the ‘Kutia’ after she was allegedly shown the video by Mr. Lamba.
The High Court in this regard, stated that, “Shri Lamba, who was posted as DCP (West), Jodhpur at the relevant point of time, has emphatically written his memoirs and mentions that he visited the crime scene on 21.08.2013 and recorded a video thereof with his mobile phone so that it could be used for future references.”
The Bench therefore allowed the Appellant’s Plea while stating, “…it is directed that the witness Shri Ajay Pal Lamba, the then DCP (West), Jodhpur shall be summoned in this Court for recording his evidence as a court witness at the appellate stage for the limited purpose of extracting the truth about the video recorded.”