2 witnesses turn hostile in Ujjain prof murder case

Two main witnesses to Prof H S Sabharwal’s murder outside Ujjain’s Madhav College turned hostile in the trial court on Monday.

Two main witnesses to Prof H S Sabharwal’s murder outside Ujjain’s Madhav College turned hostile in the trial court on Monday.

The 62-year-old professor was on his way home on his two-wheeler after announcing the cancellation of student union elections in August last year when he was mobbed allegedly by ABVP activists who held him responsible for cancelling the elections. Then state ABVP president Shashi Ranjan Akela and general secretary Vimal Tomar, at present in judicial custody, were among the six activists who were held by the police. The activists were booked for murder after media outrage over the police suggestion that the professor had died of heart attack.

On Monday, prime witnesses Komal Singh Sengar and M S Dodia refused to identify the accused, saying they saw the attack but not the attackers. In his media interviews, however, Sengar, the college peon, had identified the ABVP activists as accused and criticised other lecturers for not coming out and testifying.

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During the trial, Sengar claimed he had never named anyone in his statements before the CID, which was asked by the state government to take over the investigation from the local police after a demand for CBI probe. Sengar is the only witness who still has police protection. He was given protection after he alleged that he was being threatened and offered allurement to keep quiet.

The professor’s son, Himanshu Sabharwal, said he was not surprised by the turn of events because he had anticipated it and, essentially to prevent it, had demanded a CBI probe or shifting of the trial outside Madhya Pradesh. He said he had always insisted on recording the statements of the accused under Section 164 of the CrPC.

He said he has hope only in Supreme Court, which is “practically, perhaps, running the country”.”…(If the) court intervenes and investigation get transferred to external agencies like CBI and then thereafter the hearing also transferred out of the state or else all of them will be acquitted,” Himanshu told NDTV.

Ujjain SP Jaideep Prasad, however, claimed that the case still stood on solid ground. “There are 15 other witnesses. Just because two of then turn hostile, the case does not fall. The court can go by circumstantial evidence.”