Bina Ramani, a key witness in the Jessica Lal murder case, on Monday described the conviction of Manu Sharma as the culmination of an over seven-year-long struggle for justice and said it felt "unbelievable".
Ramani's arrest came on a day when she approached a Delhi court seeking bail in the cheating and forgery case. In her application, Ramani alleged she had unnecessarily been framed in the case.
Ramani is in police custody in a forgery and cheating case related to the Jessica Lal murder.
The Special Investigation Team of the Delhi Police, which is probing the Jessica's murder, brought her to New Delhi.
Socialite Bina Ramani, charged with destruction of evidence after the murder of Jessica Lal in her restaurant and an accused in a cheating-cum-forgery case, on Saturday walked to freedom after spending nine days in custody.
It was in Ramani's restaurant Tamarind Court in South Delhi that Jessica, a fashion model, was shot dead on the night of April 29-30, 1999.
Ramani was taken to Goa for investigations.
'Nitish Kumar is the only leader who gave us everything.'
"As the weapon has not been recovered yet by the investigating agency, the question of reliability on such report does not arise," she added.
"I have 14 reasons to show that how her evidence does not advance the prosecution case at all."
The prosecution is strongly relying upon Ramani's testimony to prove Sharma guilty of murdering Jessica in Tamarind Court, Ramani's restaurant over Jessica's refusal to serve him liquor on the intervening night of April 29-30, 1999.
The Bench comprising Justice R S Sodhi and Justice P K Bhasin expressed dissatisfaction at the manner in which the witnesses failed to give proper testimonies in the case.
Ramani has been arrested on charges of not helping the investigations in the Jessica Lal case.
Sharma, son of former Union minister Venod Sharma, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi high court in December 2006 for killing Jessica Lal in 1999.
Admitting that he had earlier fought a case for Bina Ramani with regard to the custody of her children, Jethmalani denied that he had charged the key prosecution witness with resorting to falsehood in the Jessica Lal murder case.
The court posted the matter for further hearing to April five.
In his 179-page judgment, Judge Bhayana said a few witnesses were deliberately introduced.
Additional Sessions Judge S L Bhayana acquitted Siddarth Vashist alias Manu Sharma of charges of murder and Vikas Yadav, Tony Gill, Alok Khanna of charges of destruction of evidence.
The Delhi High Court has directed the Delhi police to take action against all the 29 witnesses who turned hostile in the case.
'He spent just two years and eight months in jail.' says Sabrina Lal, Jessica's sister.
Manu Sharma, the convict in the murder case of Jessica, and Mattoo's killer Santosh Singh were among 204 who had approached the board, headed by state Home Minister Satyendar Jain, the sources said.
In her reply to the letter sent by the jail authorities, Lall pointed out that Sharma had been helping inmates during the 15 years he had spent in prison.
Siddharth Vashisht alias Manu Sharma, undergoing life term for killing model Jessica Lall in 1999, was on Thursday granted parole for 30 more days by the Delhi High Court so that he can prepare a diploma thesis for his post-graduation course.
The SRB, at its meeting, recommended release of 22 convicts on completion of their sentences and rejected 86 other cases, including the three high-profile murder cases.
Siddharth Vashisht alias Manu Sharma, who is undergoing life term for killing model Jessica Lall in 1999, was on Wednesday granted nine days parole by the Delhi high court to appear in post graduate exams.
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Manu Sharma, undergoing life term for killing model Jessica Lall in 1999, was granted limited parole by Delhi HC to enable him to appear for his LLB first semester exams.
'Yes, seriously. This was the time she was going through a bad phase; her personal life was a mess after her alleged affair with Amitabh Bachchan ended and her career was going nowhere.'
It observed that an expert, in such a situation, could not have given a different opinion and said, "It was unjust to attribute any motive to Manocha that he changed his original stand in the written opinion."
Laughter was a component of Parmeshar Godrej's large-hearted Punjabi spirit, recalls Sunil Sethi.
Rediff.com looks at other sensational murder mysteries that left India shell-shocked.
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