Jessica Lall witness’ fate in HC today

NEW DELHI: Bollywood actor Shayan Munshi could end up in fresh trouble on Wednesday when the Delhi High Court decides if he should face trial for perjury in connection with the Jessica Lall murder case.
A bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and G P Mittal will look at a reference which had asked it to decide if Munshi and other witnesses in the case are liable to be prosecuted for perjury or not.The reference was made by the bench which reversed the trial court's acquittal order and sentenced accused Manu Sharma to life imprisonment in 2006.
While awarding life term, HC had taken suo motu cognisance against Munshi and other hostile witnesses. The court had later deferred the trial in the perjury case as Sharma appealed to the Supreme Court against the ruling.
Once the apex court upheld the ruling in Jessica Lall murder case, HC had resumed proceedings in the perjury case in which it will give its verdict. The prosecution has been pressing high court to refer the case of 19 out of the 31 hostile witnesses, including Munshi, to the magisterial court for their trial.
Three of the 31 witnesses are dead while HC itself discharged 10 of them earlier on the ground that there was no major deviation between their statements to the police and later to the court.