New Delhi, July 29 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the conviction of criminal lawyer R K Anand for contempt of court for attempting to influence key witness Sunil Kulkarni in the 1999 BMW hit-and-run case.

The apex court, however, set aside the conviction of Special Public Prosecutor I U Khan, who had also been debarred by the Delhi High Court from practising for four months along with Anand.

A three-judge Bench comprising Justices B N Agrawal, G S Singhvi and Aftab Alam, pronounced the verdict after watching the original footage of the sting operation provided by NDTV.

The court described sting operation as being in the public interest. It also said that it was not a trial by the media and had served a public purpose.

The sting exposed Anand persuading Kulkarni to change his testimony to save prime accused Sanjeev Nanda in collusion with I U Khan.

The High Court had convicted the duo for obstructing the administration of justice and had barred them from appearing in the High Court and other subordinate courts for four months and had fined them Rs 2,000 each.

Earlier, the Delhi High Court upheld the conviction of Sanjeev Nanda. Justice Kailash Gambhir, however, had reduced Nanda''s jail term from five to two years.

Besides Nanda, the court had also sentenced Rajiv Gupta and Bhola Nath to a year and six months in jail, respectively.

The court convicted Nanda under the Section 304 (2) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), dealing with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

Nanda, allegedly in an inebriated state, was accused of mowing down seven people with his high speeding BMW car in the wee hours of January 10, 1999 in Lodhi Colony area. (ANI)