Maid murder: Court junks plea of accused for long adjournment

A Delhi court has dismissed a plea of former BSP MP Dhananjay Singh's wife Jagriti Singh seeking adjournment by at least six months recording of prosecution evidence in a case of murder of their maid in which both are accused.
The court said it appeared that Jagriti's plea was only "a ploy to linger" the matter indefinitely and to "harass" public witnesses and it was without any merits.
"The present application (of Jagriti) seeking adjournment of at least six months for further cross-examination (of witness), however, seems to be only a ploy to linger on the matter indefinitely and to harass the public witnesses, which may lead to failure of justice...," Additional Sessions Judge Amit Bansal said.

In her plea, Jagriti, who is in judicial custody, said that recording of evidence should be adjourned for at least six months for further cross-examination of witnesses as there were two digital video recordings (DVRs) on record in the case which contained CCTV footage of approximately 2,000 hours.
Her counsel said that it would be proper to conduct cross examination of two prosecution witnesses only after watching the CCTV footage and it would take around six months to watch it properly.
Her plea was opposed by police which said every effort has been made to record the testimony of two prosecution witnesses expeditiously and it "does not lie in the mouth" of accused to seek adjournment for going through the CCTV footage.

The prosecutor said that contents of the DVRs were in knowledge of the accused as it was supplied to them earlier.
Jagriti, who was a dental surgeon at a government hospital here, and Dhananjay were arrested on November 5, 2013 in connection with the death of their 35-year-old maid Rakhi Bhadra, a resident of West Bengal. Dhananjay is currently out on bail.