The Jessica Lal murder trial entered its last stage on Monday as the prosecution concluded its arguments in a Delhi court.
Defence counsel Pandit R K Naseem began his arguments in the court of Additional Sessions Judge S L Bhayana, which will be hearing the matter on a daily basis.
The case of the defence primarily rested on the statement given by complainant Shayan Munshi in court earlier.
The court has already declared Munshi as a hostile witness after he retracted from his statements in the original complaint.
State counsel S K Saxena had earlier argued that according to four other witnesses, the four accused, Manu Sharma, Vikas Yadav, Amardeep Singh (Tony) Gill and Alok Khanna, were present at the party when the murder took place.
This was contradictory to the statement of the accused, who claimed that they did not attend the party at all.
Four witnesses, Deepak Bhojwani, Bina Ramani, her husband George Mailhot, and her daughter Malini, stated that they had seen Manu Sharma with three other co-accused at the party.
Jessica Lal, a model, was shot dead at point-blank range on the night of April 29-30, 1999, at a south Delhi restaurant owned by designer Malini Ramani.
Prosecution alleges that Sharma, the son of Haryana politician Venod Sharma, was enraged when Jessica refused to serve him alcohol, and shot her in a frenzied fit.
Of the accused, Sharma is presently on bail, while Yadav, son of former MP D P Yadav, is in judicial custody and is facing trial in another case, for the murder of Nitish Katara.
