Sanjeev Nanda

Sanjeev Nanda (born 1978) is a businessman and the son of Suresh Nanda, an Indian
arms dealer, head of the firm Crown Corporation and . An ex-naval officer, implicated in
Tehelka expose. He is also the grandson of an ex-Chief of Naval Staff-turned
businessman, S. M. Nanda from New Delhi. Sanjeev has been convicted for running over
and killing six people, including three policemen [1]. The case attracted enormous media
attention, and was viewed by many as "a test of the judicial system's ability to take on the
powerful" [1]. Nanda is also one of the principals in the weapon trading firm Crown
Corporation started by his father, Lt. Commander Suresh Nanda (ex-Indian Navy). He
also owns several hotels.

Sanjeev Nanda, a management graduate from INSEAD and Wharton, was allegedly in a
drunken state when he drove his BMW car at high speed through a police checkpoint at
4:50 AM early morning of January 10, 1999. After running through the policemen, he
allegedly stopped the car to check the damage, saw people under the car, and according
to the prosecution, at this point co-passenger Manik Kapoor said: ‘‘Let’s go,’’ and they
quickly drove away[2]. The car was later cleaned up by servants at a friend's house.

In the initial court case, Sanjeev and five others were acquitted after many years because
the court did not find any of the witnesses reliable and the defense was able to make the
case that it was perhaps a truck and not the BMW that had caused the deaths. All the
accused were released, resulting in a sharp drop in public confidence in the legal system,
since it was widely believed that the witnesses had been bought off[3]. Following the
media hue and cry, another court in September 2008 sentenced him to five years in jail.

Also, in March 2008, Sanjeev Nanda and his father were also arrested in Mumbai in
connection with the Barak Missile Scandal, in which Crown Corporation allegedly paid
large bribes to politicians and defence officials. He is also a British national.

The BMW hit-and-run case

The BMW incident appears to have unfolded as follows:

The incident occurred at 4:50 AM early morning of January 10, 1999. Sanjeev Nanda
was returning from a late night party in Gurgaon with friends Manik Kapoor &Siddharth
Gupta. Both were in their early twenties and came from influential business families -
Manik's father Sudhir Kapoor runs a thriving export business was one of the closest to the
Nanda Family. Sanjiv had apparently been instructed by his parents not to drive that
night, but was at the wheel anyway. There was a police checkpoint on Lodhi Road and it
appears that the constable may have challenged the car, though it is also possible that the
car was going so fast that it was out of control. In any event, it is alleged that Sanjeev's
BMW crashed through all the people at the police checkpoint, immediately killing two
constables - Rajan Kumar (25) (of 86th Battalion of the CRPF), Ram Raj (38) of Delhi
Home Guard, and two others - Abdul Nasir (30) and Gulab (32), who were apparently
being interrogated. Another policeman, Peru Lal (40) of the Delhi Home Guard, along
with Mehendi Hassan, died later in hospital. The seventh victim, Manoj (32), survived,
but is untraceable today. [4]

After running through the policemen, he allegedly stopped the car to check the damage,
saw people under the car, and according to the prosecution, at this point co-passenger
Manik Kapoor said: ‘‘Let’s go,’’ and they quickly drove away[2]. The car was then driven
to Siddharth Gupta's house in Golf Links, where Siddharth's father Rajiv Gupta, who
heads the finance firm Motor General Finance, instructed watchman Bhola Nath and
driver Shyam Singh Rana to clean the bumpers and bonnet of the car of the blood and
vestiges of the victims. Subsequently the police charged these three with destroying
evidence. A few days later, a witness Sunil Kulkarni, came forward to describe the scene.
At the time of the crash, he was on his way to the railway station. He deposed as follows
on Jan 16, 1999:

"They were driving very fast. The car went to the side, crushing two people. A few others
were thrown away. The driver got out and looked at the damage done to the car. Then the
other person in the car came out and looked behind the car. Then they quickly drove off. I
came to the police on the 15th because of my guilty conscience." [3]

NDTV sting operation

The prominent criminal lawyers involved in the case were R.K. Anand and I.U. Khan.
NDTV carried out a sting operation in which they were caught on camera offering money
to Sunil Kulkarni. Later the Delhi High Court barred the advocates from practising for
four months.[5]

The investigation

The vehicle's broken registration plate was found on the scene the next morning. A 100-
yard stretch near the police checkpoint was strewn with body parts and severed limbs
amid pools of blood. Preliminary investigations revealed that the car would have been
going at 140 km/h when it hit the victims.[6]

Within a few hours of the incident, Inspector Jagdish Pandey of the Police Control Room
of Delhi Police was able to trace the BMW by trailing the oil leak from the accident-spot
to Rajiv Gupta's garage.[7] They found the one-month old car, purchased in his sister
Sonali Nanda's name, with foreign number plates, which had not been registered in India.
Attempts to clean it were still in progress. Sanjeev and his friends were arrested, but his
clothes, and those of the others who helped clean the car, were never found. When
Sanjeev and his friends were first charged with Culpable homicide in court, a gaggle of
Delhi's elite descended on Patiala House courts, including ex-Admiral Nanda himself. [4]

The Witnesses

• Manoj Malik
 • Harishankar[8]
• Sunil Kulkarni: initially volunteered to have witnessed the accident, later
vacillated.

The trial

During the initial trial, the only survivor, Manoj, said that it might have been a truck that
hit them. Since the other six witnesses were dead, Manoj was the only voice. It is widely
believed that he had been paid off, and has mysteriously disappeared thereafter. Another
witness, Sunil Kulkarni had volunteered to have seen the incident, but the elite defence
team was able to discredit him and he was portrayed as having been "put up" by the Delhi
Police.

In Sanjeev Nanda's testimony (in 92 questions over 14 pages), he told Judge S.L. Bayana
that he was not driving the car and was not the car's owner. He said it was his sister's car
and he had nothing to do with the accident.

Sanjeev Nanda spent a few months in jail but was released on bail in May 1999. He was
set a surety of a Rs 45 crore (USD 9 million), subsequently reduced to Rs. 15 crore (USD
3 million).

Re-trial

The case went up for re-trial. Under intense media pressure, the case was tried on a fast-
track basis, and on 2 September, 2008, Sanjeev Nanda was convicted by a Delhi court for
mowing down six persons in the nine-year-old BMW hit-and-run case and can face a ten-
year prison term.

The BMW case joins a long list of similar cases. A few years back, Puru Raj Kumar, the
son of Bollywood Actor Raj Kumar, had run over two pavement dwellers. He had been
fined Rs. 35000 (about USD 1000).

Timeline

1999

• 10 January, A speeding BMW drives through a police check-point in Delhi and

kills 6 people.

2007

• 18 May, key whitness Sunil Kulkarni says Sanjeev Nanda was 1 of the 3 people in
the BMW[9]
• 1 June, Sanjeev Nanda says in court that he was not in the BMW[citation needed]

2008
 • March, Sanjeev and his father Suresh Nanda was arrested from a Mumbai hotel
for allegedly bribing an income tax official. Suresh nanda was also once accused
by CBI for purchasing barak missiles from Israel 8 years ago. [10] Both were bailed
out in that case.
• 2 September, Sanjeev Nanda was convicted by a Delhi court for mowing down
six persons in the nine-year-old BMW hit-and-run case and can face a ten-year
prison term.
• 5 September, Sanjeev Nanda gets five year jail term for mowing down six persons
in the nine-year-old BMW hit-and-run case[11]
• 19 December, granted three weeks interim bail to meet his ailing grandfather S M
Nanda[12]

2009

• The Delhi High Court on January 9 rejected a plea of BMW-hit-and-run case

convict Sanjeev Nanda to extend in his interim bail which expires on Saturday.
Justice Kailash Gambhir dismissed the petition of Nanda which means he had to
surrender himself 10th of January. Nanda, undergoing five years jail term in the
BMW hit-and-run case, was earlier on December 19 granted three-week interim
bail to meet his ailing grandfather and former Naval Chief S M Nanda. [13]
• 22 August, Sanjeev Nanda was freed from jail three months before his two-year
jail term ended due to his good conduct. Nanda walked free from Tihar Jail No 4,
where he was lodged. According to rules, a convict can earn three months of
remission every year if he conducts himself in a positive manner. [14]

2010

• 8 March, Sanjeev Nanda weds his girlfriend Medha Bhatnagar amidst extravagant
floral décor by designer Tarun Tahiliani, lavish multi-cuisine spread from Hotel
Claridges and a guest list that boasted the rich and famous of India. [15]

The Barak Missile scam

Sanjeev Nanda is also involved in the Barak missile scam, a case in which his company,
the weapon trading firm Crown Corporation, was implicated for massive bribes to Indian
politicians and defence officials. A Tehelka investigation in 2001 revealed possible
influence Lt-Cmdr Suresh Nanda and Admiral SM Nanda may have had with the Indian
Ministry of Defence in swinging deals. In these tapes, the reporter is posing as a
representative of the fictional large arms supplier West End. At one point, the Samata
Party national treasurer RK Jain is trying to convince Tehelka about his prowess in
swinging deals. He mentions how in the first defence deal that he was involved in as the
party treasurer, Suresh Nanda of Crown Corporation had paid Samata Party Rs 1 crore to
swing the Rs 250-crore (USD 60 million) order for Armoured Recovery Vehicles (ARV)
in favour of a Slovakian company.
 • Samata Party treasurer R.K. Jain: "Nanda approached me. Czechoslovakia's price
was the lowest, second Slovakian, third was the Poland."
• Tehelka: "Haan, Haan."
• R.K. Jain: "He said, 'I will give you one crore rupees in advance'."
• Tehelka: "Okay."
• R.K. Jain: "You get disapproved the last one. Czechoslovakia because they are so
lower that we cannot match their price."
• Tehelka: "Okay."
• R.K. Jain: "If you can push him out. Delegation is going on to the... delegation
has been ordered to go to Czechoslovakia. Stop this delegation, and technically
reject this company. Here are the documents."
• Tehelka: "Hmm."
• R.K.Jain: "By which it's proved that this company is closed for the last two years.
They will start only after getting this order."
• Tehelka: "Yeah, yeah."
• R.K. Jain: "I will give one crore rupees. And I will give you... if they are
technically disapproved, then you are my agent."
• Tehelka: "Yeah."
• R.K. Jain: "For this particular... perks... and I will give you so much of
commission."
• Tehelka: "Okay."
• R.K. Jain: "I said, 'Fine.' He gave me the correspondence. I took the
correspondence to George."

(the then Defence minister George Fernandes was from Samata Party)

• Tehelka: "Hmm."
• R.K. Jain: "And he said, 'All right, I'll reject it.' He is a very intelligent man."...
• Tehelka: Okay, it is manipulated.
• R.K. Jain: He wrote straight away on the file himself. He never goes and orders to
a Joint Secretary. He wrote it himself, and sent the file back. Nanda gave me one
crore rupees. He called me, "Yes, Mr. Jain, the file has come down. Like you
know George…"
• Tehelka: Yeah, yeah [16].

Jain also said that he had received another Rs 1 crore for the Samata Party from Suresh
Nanda to help swing the contract for an air-to-air and surface-to-surface missile system
for the Indian Navy. Nanda was an agent for the Israeli Barak missile system. [17]

These tapes were the result of a clandestine sting operation and are not admissible as
evidence in court. However, the intense media pressure led to a separate investigation by
the Central Bureau of Investigation and five years later, R.K. Jain was arrested in
February 2006[18]. In October 2006, the Central Bureau of Investigation filed charges
against George Fernandes, former Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sushil Kumar, and others
in the Barak missile case, claiming that there was reasonable basis to suspect corruption
and criminal conspiracy [19].
Finally, seven years after the expose, in March 2008, the Nandas were arrested[20].

Hotel Chain ownership

Sanjeev is also the owner of a hotel chain, including the Claridges Hotel in Delhi and the
Sun n Sand in Mumbai. It was from the latter that he and his father were arrested in
March 1998.