Bar Council should take note of latest BMW expose: Sorabjee

New Delhi, Dec 4 (IANS) Soli Sorabjee, former attorney general of India, Tuesday said the Bar Council should take "very serious note" of a TV news channel 's sting operation allegedly showing Sunil Kulkarni, the controversial key witness in the 1999 BMW hit-and-run, taking favours from defence lawyer R.K. Anand.

According to the expose by NDTV Monday, Kulkarni spent several months in Anand's farmhouse near Shimla eight years ago and enjoyed his hospitality after the January 1999 accident in which six people were killed.

Reacting to the report, Sorabjee said: "Let the Bar Council take not, the disciplinary committee be composed of senior advocates, whose eminence and impartiality is not in question. "At the same time, R.K. Anand must have confidence in the composition of the tribunal," he said, adding that he felt sorry that a good lawyer had to resort to all this. "I find it very disheartening and very disappointing and very unfortunate that he had ever to resort to this. But if things have come to this, then obviously it is unacceptable," he said.

Ramesh Gupta, one of the lawyers defending Sanjeev Nanda, the main accused in the case, said: "Kulkarni was dropped as a witness in the year 1999 itself. As far as he enjoying the hospitality of Mr Anand, I have nothing to say because I don't know anything about it." R.K. Anand, when contacted, refused to comment on the television expose.

Terming it "professional misconduct", a Bar Council member said it "cannot be tolerated by the legal fraternity". Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said that action would be taken against Anand if found guilty. He added that the Bar Council would take up the matter at the highest level and make sure the guilty is punished. However, some lawyers felt otherwise. "The TV channel report has not been proved yet. The courts will take appropriate steps and punish the guilty, be it Anand or the channel."

The channel in its sting had also claimed that Kulkarni, who has changed his version in court several times, acquired a driving licence in Himachal Pradesh in the name of Nishikant Sharma, giving R.K. Anand's Shimla address as his residence and showing him as his father. Sanjeev Nanda is the grandson of former naval chief Admiral S.M. Nanda.