Summary:
JODHPUR: Trial of sensational Bhanwari Devi abduction and murder case going on in the special court for SC/ST cases has got stuck on the arguments between the prosecution and the defence that whether the DNA expert of the FBI should appear in the court or not.While the prosecution (CBI) wants the DNA expert Amber B Carr to be examined through video conferencing, the defence has been insisting on her appearance in the court for examination as an important witness. Arguments, however, were completed in the court on Tuesday and order has been kept reserved whether Carr’s examination will happen through video conferencing or in person.Carr was the one who had tested the purported bones of Bhanwari Devi which were recovered by the CBI from a canal near Jaloda village.“Since these bones were burnt, they could not be DNA tested in India and had to be sent to the US at FBI’s forensic laboratory, where Carr had done a DNA examination of these bones,” said a prosecution counsel.At the stage of her examination in the court, summons were sent to her for appearance in the court but she did not turn up.Defence counsel Hemant Nahta said that the first summon was sent on May 25 last year and since then three summons have been issued but not a single one has been answered and now the prosecution has come up with the idea of her examination through video conferencing.He said that neither the rules of the high court nor the criminal procedure code provides for recording of the statements of a witness through video conferencing.The defence also argued that a criminal trial court has no power to lay down a procedure in this regard.The defence also expressed suspicion that in case of video conferencing, the witness could be tutored to narrate the story of the prosecution..