Interview: RK Anand

You are guilty of influencing a witness in the BMW case. Didn’t the families of those run over by businessman Sanjeev Nanda deserve to get justice?
Ninety-nine percent people do not know that when I first took the case in January 1999, I laid down a condition that whether Sanjeev Nanda had done this or not, he had to compensate the families. The dead can’t come back but at least they should be compensated for. And after Sanjeev Nanda was granted bail, I called him about the compensation. That day he took the file and went away. But the next day he came and said that I was right.

That means he was guilty.
I had told the Nandas that whether the accident was caused by Sanjeev or not, they should compensate, because the car was involved. I got the victims’ families compensation as high as Rs 15 lakh each. People have forgotten the things done by me on humanitarian grounds.

Money does not compensate for the legal process. You are guilty of trying to influence a witness. Any remorse?
The influencing of a witness means that you are asking a witness to do something he never intended to do. There is no question of my influencing the witness. In fact, the witness was trying to influence me. He was thrusting himself on me at the airport in the VIP lounge. I had beaten up this person and had him thrown out of my office on an earlier occasion. Try to understand, will you influence a witness at an airport or in a South Delhi market? Or will you secretly call him? In the sting operation, did I tell Sunil Kulkarni, the witness, to tell the court that the accident was caused by a truck and not a BMW? Although I have denied the transcript, you can’t find this in the transcript. Even when he talked about the Rs 2.5 crore, I reacted sharply.

But what made you interfere with the process of justice? 
From the beginning I had made it clear that I was only arguing for the bail application of Sanjeev Nanda. I have nothing to do with whether he killed people. My engagement was only with the bail application. After nine years, when the case was presented in the High Court, he came to me to appeal for a stay. I had also recorded Kulkarni’s conversations because he was constantly talking about money. We thought that if he does something, we would present the evidence in court. I had told the High Court Chief Justice that the witness is a shady character.

The Supreme Court has recommended that you be stripped of your designation as Senior Advocate. 
The Supreme Court can’t do that. The Constitution says that punishment can’t exceed Section 12. I cannot be barred from practicing. Stripping me of my position is extra-constitutional. The Supreme Court cannot implement it.

Have you not become a political liability for the Congress? 
So many rape cases are pending against politicians. Cases are pending against people like Lalu Prasad as well. Are they ever called liabilities? Moreover, I have never confessed that I did anything wrong, so why should I be one? I contested from South Delhi and before me eight people from Congress had lost with huge margins. Even Dr Manmohan Singh lost by 35,000 votes, while I lost only by 12,000 votes. I don’t understand why I’m being called a liability.