CHANDIGARH: Chief Judicial Magistrate Darshan Singh last week allowed the prosecution to a limited cross examination of the prime witness, former Punjab Governor S.S. Ray but turned down the plea to declare him hostile. Partially accepting the plea of the public prosecutor, R.L. Sharma, allowed the cross examination of Ray on three specific issues for further clarification.
The former Punjab Governor last week informed the Chief Judicial Magistrate here that he had asked K_P.S. Gill, the then DGP, and Punjab, to unconditionally apologize to Rupan Deol Bajaj, after he got intoxicated at a party. It was for getting intoxicated that an apology was sought and for nothing else, Ray Stressed, * Public prosecutor R.L. Sharma while pleading that Ray be declared hostile said that being a prosecution witness he had revealed some new facts which went in favor of the accused, He further said that these facts were contrary to the facts mentioned in his note.
Opposing the plea, defence counsel Alok Sengupta and Faqir Chand Aggarwal, challenged the prosecution to prove a single instance where Ray had gone back on his previous Statement. During his cross-examination by the prosecution, Ray deposed that he had expressed dissatisfaction over Gill’s getting intoxicated on July 18, 1988, the night when the alleged incident took place. There were different versions of the incident.
Regarding the different versions, Ray did not recall calling for Adviser to the Governor J.F. Ribeiro to bring the same to his notice. He added that he sent his orders on the matter to various officers concerned, including Ribeiro, who recorded no objections. The former Governor said that from Ribeiro’s note of July 20, 1988, regarding the incident, it was made out that Bajaj only demanded an adverse remark in Gill’s annual confidential report (ACR) and opposed honoring the police chief with a Pagma award. But when Bajaj met him on July 29, 1988, the list of demands had gone up, from where he derived that a case was being unnecessarily made against Gill, the former Governor said.
Responding to the cross-examination by the defence counsel, Ray said that he did not record the version of either Rupan Bajaj or Gill as they reported different versions and he did not want to enter into any dispute. He also deposed that he had no knowledge as to how four letters which were not related to his office were inserted into the file summoned by the court from the Governor’s office, with the cross-examination of Ray; the prosecution completed the production of its witnesses. The CJM adjourned the hearing till later when the statement of the accused will be recorded.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 3, 1996
