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New Delhi: Key prosecution witness in the Rahul Mahajan drug abuse case, Karan Ahuja, was today prevented from taking the witness box due to a technical hitch.
He could not depose in the trial court here as the case file is in the possession of the Delhi High Court. The non-availability of case file forced the trial court to put off the recording of his statement to January 30.
According to the prosecution, Ahuja is a witness to the purchase and consumption of narcotics by the accused.
Additional Sessions Judge P Teji posted the matter to January-end after being intimated that a petition by Sahil Zaroo, a co-accused in the case, is pending in the High Court. Zaroo in his plea had challenged the trial court's order of framing drug procurement charges against him.
The court had earlier framed charges against Rahul Mahajan, son of late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, along with five others, including Zaroo, under various provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
The prosecution has projected Ahuja as the most important eye-witness who was allegedly in the company of Mahajan, Zaroo and Bibek Moitra, former personal secretary of the BJP leader who had died due to alleged drug overdose, on June 1, 2006.
Ahuja, a resident of Greater Kailash in south Delhi, had earlier told the police that he saw Zaroo purchase heroin and consumed it with Mahajan and Moitra at the late politician's official residence at Safdarjung Road here.
Apart from Mahajan and Zaroo, the court had framed charges against Harish Sharma (former personal assistant of the BJP leader), Ganesh Sinha, Abdul Lateef and Edbedokun James (both Nigerials accused of selling the drugs). | 
