Sunday, February 26 2006 12:24 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Amidst public outcry over the acquittal of all the nine accused in the Jessica Lall murder case, legal experts are divided over whether there should be a retrial on the lines of the one ordered by the Supreme Court in the Best Bakery case.

"Why can't there be a retrial?," asks noted criminal lawyer K K Sud.

"The whole investigation appears to have been bungled. What I have gathered from newspaper reports, the case speaks of lapses and lapses," he said.

"The prosecution should have recovered the weapon. It appears that the role of investigating officials was callous," he adds.

Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan agrees with Sud but says mere retrial is not enough.

"There should be a reinvestigation into what really happened, especially why witnesses retracted statements," he said.

However, senior lawyer and former Law Minister Ram Jethmalani refused to comment on the issue of retrial as he once appeared for prime accused Manu Sharma in this case.

Unlike the Best Bakery case, which was transferred from Gujarat on the orders of the Supreme Court, experts believe that the Jessica case need not be transferred outside Delhi.

"If the case were to be sent outside Delhi, justice would only be delayed that much more. Because judicial proceedings in the capital are relatively more efficient than elsewhere," says Ashok Arora, former Secretary of Supreme Court Bar Association.