E-Paper
Officers staged Manu surrender
SIT says the police killed the Jessica Lall case, writes Tushar Srivastava.
The police killed the Jessica Lall case, says the Special Investigation Team probing the 1999 murder at Tamarind Court. According to the SIT, blood was cleaned from the scene of crime; the main accused Manu Sharma's arrest was a well-planned surrender; and Shayan Munshi lied in court.
The SIT, led by U.K. Katna, had submitted the findings as a status report to the Delhi High Court on April 19.
The status report points out that on May 2, 1999, inspector Raman Lamba was at the house of Venod Sharma, Manu's father, in Chandigarh. Lamba got Venod to talk to a senior IPS officer in Delhi, whom he met the next day. On May 6, Manu surrendered and said he had handed over the pistol to Ravinder Sudan, who had left India two days before. The arrest, says SIT, was a well-planned surrender drama that followed Venod's discussions with the officer.