Jessica Lall (1965–1999) was a model in New Delhi, who was working as a celebrity barmaid at a crowded socialite party when she was shot dead on 29 April 1999.Dozens of witnesses pointed to Siddharth Vashisht, a.k.a. Manu Sharma, the son of Venod Sharma, a wealthy Congress politician in Haryana, as the murderer.
In the ensuing trial, Manu Sharma and a number of others were acquitted on 21 February 2006.
Following intense media and public pressure, the prosecution appealed and the Delhi High Court conducted proceedings on a fast track with daily hearings over 25 days. The lower court judgment was found faulty in law, and Manu Sharma was found guilty of having murdered Jessica Lall. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on 20 December 2006.
The Jessica Lall murder case went up for trial in August 1999, with Manu charged with murder and his friends charged with related crimes such as destroying evidence and sheltering criminal suspects.
Four of the witnesses who had initially said they had seen the murder happen eventually turned hostile. Shayan Munshi, a model and friend who was serving drinks beside Jessica Lall, changed his story completely; as for earlier testimony recorded with the police, he said that the writing was in Hindi, a language he was not familiar with, and it should be repudiated. On 13 May 2006, he was detained at Calcutta airport as he was about to board a flight for Bangkok, along with his wife then Peeya Rai Chowdhary.
Karan Rajput and Shivdas Yadav also had not seen anything, while Parikshit Sagar said he had left the place before the incident. In a conversation with Jessica's sister, Karan Rajput is alleged to have played a tape-recording discussing with some friends how Venod Sharma's people had "won over" several witnesses already.
Also, it appears that the cartridges used in the murder were altered. Although the gun was never recovered, these cartridges were for some reason sent for forensic evaluation, where it turned out that they had been fired from different weapons. This led to a further weakening of the prosecution's case.
On 19 April 2010, the Supreme Court of India has approved the life sentence for the guilty.The two judge bench upholding the judgement of the Delhi High Courtstated that, "The prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt the presence of Manu Sharma at the site of the offence". Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, appearing for Manu Sharma alias Siddharth Vasisth, in the Supreme Court, assailed the High Court verdict which had set aside the trial court judgement acquitting the accused. He alleged that the High Court Bench had made up its mind to hold Sharma guilty. Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium submitted that there was sufficient evidence against Manu Sharma for his involvement in the brutal crime and that he should be punished........
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