Advertisement

A division bench of justices RS Sodhi and PK Bhasin of Delhi High Court on December 20 awarded life imprisonment to Manu Sharma, son of Congress leader Venod Sharma, for murdering model Jessica Lall in 1999.

He was also given four years’ imprisonment on each count for destruction of evidence, criminal conspiracy and possessing an illegal weapon. The sentences will run concurrently. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Manu. The amount will go to Jessica’s family.

Manu's accomplices, Vikas Yadav — son of Uttar Pradesh politician DP Yadav — and Amardeep Singh Gill (Tony Gill), who had taken Manu's car away from the spot where the murder was committed, got four years’ sentences for destruction of evidence and criminal conspiracy.

According to an SIT report, senior officials of the Delhi Police had tried to shield the guilty and derail the case. The report stated that senior police officers had colluded with Manu's father Venod Sharma to save him. Venod Sharma is a leading Haryana politician belonging to the Congress party and had served as a minister at the centre in the Narasimha Rao Cabinet.

After his acquittal by a lower court in February this year, Manu had occupied himself in his family business. Nine months later, that reprieve ended when the Delhi High Court convicted him - along with his pals Amardeep Singh Gill and Vikas Yadav.

After a long battle in the lower court, where the witnesses turned hostile and retracted their statements for obvious reasons, Manu Sharma was acquitted. The verdict shocked not only the people of Delhi but also the whole of India. Thanks to the all pervasive television and print media, the persecution challenged the verdict in the High Court

The case was taken up by the Delhi High Court suo moto and that is where our country's wellknown criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani comes into the picture. The moment, news about Jethmalani accepting Manu Sharma’s case appeared, all hell broke loose. TV channels and newspapers were full of debates about the professional ethics of Jethmalani who not only appeared confident of winning the case, but also claimed to have ‘proof’ of his client’s innocence. The lawyer lost the case because he could not prove his sensational claim that a "tall Sikh gentleman" had shot Jessica dead and not his client. Ultimately, he could never reveal the identity of the ‘real killer’.

The verdict has reinstated the common man’s faith in the judicial system. Manu Sharma was convicted under Section 302 of the IPC (murder), the Arms Act and for destruction of evidence.