Arvind Malik, MCD junior engineer, was cross-examined twice by the public prosecutor while he was making his statement. Malik told the court that he had gone to Tirupati in February 1996 in main accused Subhash Gupta's car. They were accompanied by Gupta's brother, Anil Gupta. ``We reached Delhi in the first week of March,'' said Malik.

But during his cross-questioning, he did not confirm the date of his interrogation by the police nor seemed to know that his statement had been recorded. He reportedly retracted his earlier statement. According to the statement Malik made to the police, Gupta was a regular visitor to the office of Vijay Parkash, a junior engineer in the MCD and brother-in-law of one of the accused, Ravi Parkash. And it was at this office that he was introduced to Ravi Parkash.

But today, Malik denied making such a statement to the police. ``I did not state that during those days Ravi Parkash came close to Subhash Gupta,'' he said, adding: ``I did not know that Ravi Parkash was related to Vijay Parkash."

Civil Contractor Anil Katyal was produced in court as he had reportedly told the police that he provided accommodation to Ravi Parkash in his Rohini apartment. Katyal told the court today that he had never made such statement. ``The Rohini apartment belongs to my father. I never reported to the police that Ravi Parkash came to live in my father's house to prepare for his IAS examinations,'' said Katyal.

Inspector Ishwar Singh of the Crime Branch told the court that he, as a part of the investigating team, had gone to Baroda to track down the accused after having gone to Bombay. Accompanied by an informer, the team reached the Dream Hotel in the city where the accused were suspected to be present. The team, however, was unable to trace anyone. Thereafter, on a tip-off, the team went to Tilak Park where they apprehended one of the accused, Deepak Dass. The arrest led to the recovery of a bag of jewellery.

His interrogation helped the police to nab two more accused, Vinay Kumar and Kamal. Two revolvers containing live cartridges were seized from them.

The Personal Point case was transferred to the court of Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) N.K. Gupta from the court of ASJ Indermit Kochchar following a High Court direction last month.

Around 29 witnesses have deposed in the case within 15 days of the hearings.