New Delhi: The Supreme Court today rejected a plea for interim direction by senior advocate R K Anand, seeking recusal of Delhi High Court judge Justice Manmohan Sarin from hearing the BMW accident "sting operation" case.

A Bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and P Sathasivan, rejected allegations of prejudice attributed to the high court judge by Anand, the senior defence advocate in BMW case who is facing contempt for allegedly trying to influence a key eye-witness.

Anand is facing contempt proceedings purportedly for influencing controversial witness Sunil Kulkarni in the BMW hit-and-run case, as exposed by NDTV channel. "It is for the judge to say I am recusing, not for the counsel," the apex court observed, after senior counsel Rajeev Datta appearing for Anand urged the court to pass an interim direction to restrain Justice Sarin from hearing the matter.

The beleaguered advocate through his counsel mentioned the matter before the apex court, after the Delhi High Court Bench of Justices Manmohan Sarin and Madan B Lokur early in the day rejected his argument that fresh "exposes" telcast by NDTV on Monday night will prejudice the proceedings against him.

The apex court also rejected the argument of the counsel that the High Court had delivered a split verdict on the maintainability of Justice Sarin hearing the matter.

Source : PTI