Mumbai: The Priya Rajwansh murder trial on July 19 took a significant turn with a key witness turning hostile in a sessions court even as the prosecution closed its case after examining about 25 witnesses.

Sons of late Chetan Anand, Ketan and Vivek and their servants Mala Choudhary and Ashok Chinaswamy are facing the charge of conspiring to murder former actress Priya Rajwansh.

To prove the conspiracy angle, prosecutor Kiran Makasare on July 19 examined A Dhanpal, owner of a telephone booth at Salem. The case of the prosecution is that Mala Choudhary spoke to Ashok Chinaswamy on telephone in early 2000 asking him to come to Mumbai, as Priya had to be killed.

Dhanpal, however, turned hostile saying that he was not aware about any such talks. He also did not recognise Ashok Chinaswamy in the court. He is the first witness in this case to turn hostile.

When Ashok was asked to stand up in the dock, Dhanpal told judge S P Nikam that he had not seen Ashok before and denied that he had come to his booth to answer the telephone call of Mala Choudhary from Mumbai.

Dhanpal refuted allegations of police that he was falsely deposing before the court to save Ashok because he hailed from his village and belonged to the same community.

According to the prosecution, Ketan and Vivek had conspired with their servants to kill Priya as their father late Chetan Anand had bequeathed one-third share of his property to the former actress and his close friend.

Priya was found murdered in the Juhu bungalow of late Chetan Anand on March 27, 2000.

PTI