HC seeks Delhi govt’s reply on Manu Sharma’s plea for early release

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought the response of the Delhi government on a plea by Manu Sharma, convict in the Jessica Lal murder case, challenging

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought the response of the Delhi government on a plea by Manu Sharma, convict in the Jessica Lal murder case, challenging a decision of the Sentence Review Board (SRB) which had rejected his case for early release.

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Justice Brijesh Sethi issued notice on the plea filed through advocate Amit Sahni which had contended that the SRB had rejected Sharma’s case in an ‘unfair, arbitrary and whimsical manner.’ Challenging an order of the SRB on September 19, 2019, the plea said that the petitioner has spent more than 23 years in jail (with remission).

The plea said that at the time of offence in 1999, Sharma was 24 years old has spent most of his adult life in jail. It said the petitioner has a wife and old parents.

“Over the last 20 years the petitioner has worked in the jail factory, horticulture, and education division and the same has been appreciated by way of certificates and letters of commendation by successive Superintendents, DIG (prisons) and DG (prisons) on numerous occasions.

“The petitioner has had an unblemished record throughout incarceration and there has been nothing adverse against him. The petitioner’s reformative actions and efforts for helping children of jail inmates have been appreciated by the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi as well as the Delhi High Court,” the plea said.

The petition also contended that even after completing his sentence and conducting himself in the most disciplined manner throughout his incarceration and keeping a positive attitude towards reform and preforming all works and tasks assigned to him, Sharma now finds himself in a position where even after fulfilling all the parameters as per the prevalent policy/order the release of the petitioner has been rejected on four separate occasions in an unfair and unlawful manner.

Manu Sharma, son of former Union minister Venod Sharma, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the high court in December, 2006 for killing Lal. The trial court had acquitted him, but the Delhi High Court had reversed the order and the Supreme Court had upheld his life sentence in April, 2010. Lal was shot dead by Manu Sharma after she had refused to serve him liquor at a party in south Delhi’s Mehrauli area on the night of April 30, 1999.

Sharma has been transferred to Tihar’s open prison. Prisoners lodged in open prison are allowed to leave the prison complex for work in the morning but have to return by 7.30 pm and spend every night in prison.