Chronology of events in the Jessica Lal murder case
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea of Manu Sharma, son of senior Congress leader Venod Sharma, seeking review of the judgement sentencing him to life imprisonment for killing model Jessica Lall 11 years ago.
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"You can say that this was a sub-conscious decision as I had not gone even to Delhi High court when it passed orders against Manu Sharma and his friends. There was a certain amount of nervousness as one did not know which way the order will go. Thank God it's all over, I said to myself when I heard that the Supreme Court had upheld the order passed by the Delhi High court," Lal said.
The defence of convict Manu Sharma in the Jessica Lall murder case that two weapons were used in the offence did not sustain the scruitny in the Supreme Court which said the ballistic report was vague and no credence can be lent to it.
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.
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".
Halla Bol releases on December 21, along with Aamir Khan's Taare Zameen Par and Anees Bazmee's Welcome.
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."
Venod said there was no pressure on him from the government or the party high command to resign from his post.
In his initial statement, Rajput had told police that he saw a man in white T-shirt firing at Jessica, but later turned hostile in court, turing the case on its head.
The bench was fixing a date in July for hearing Manu's bail and appeal against his conviction and life sentence by the Delhi high court.
The Delhi High Court has directed the Delhi police to take action against all the 29 witnesses who turned hostile in the case.
Action will be taken as per the court directions on the SIT findings.
For Jessica's family, justice has finally been served, though after a prolonged fight.
The court convicted Manu Sharma for the murder of Jessica at Tamarind Court restaurant in the capital, also holding co-accused Vikas Yadav and Amarjeet Singh Gill alias Tony guilty of conspiracy and destruction of evidence.
It also dismissed an application of the Delhi Police seeking permission to submit additional evidence in the case.
He said entire circumstances were invented by the Police to falsely implicate Manu. Delhi Police has challenged the acquittal of Manu and others in the Jessica Lal murder case.
"I have 14 reasons to show that how her evidence does not advance the prosecution case at all."
"Two-thirds of the evidence produced by the prosecution is false. When majority of the evidence is false, the whole case is doubtful," Jethmalani argued.
Delhi high court on Tuesday dismissed an application by prime accused Manu Sharma seeking transfer of Jessica Lal murder case to another court
Lal was allegedly shot dead in the intervening night of April 29 and 30, 1999 at a restaurant owned by noted socialite Bina Ramani at Qutub Colonade in South Delhi.
Delhi Police Commissioner K K Paul had even suggested that a separate case of forgery be lodged.\n
Some persons, who knew the co-accused Vikas Yadav and Amardeep Singh Gill and were made witnesses in the case, were also served notices to explain for changing their stand before the trial court.
Manu, who is likely to spend the coming years inside the high security Tihar jail, accepted the sentence as part of his destiny.
Gill's plea for bail is likely to be heard on Wednesday by the Division Bench of Justice R S Sodhi and Justice P K Bhasin.
The case was re-opened following the police appeal challenging the acquittal of all nine accused by a lower court.
"There is no evidence to establish that the car was used by the accused in the crime," the lawyer argued.
Appearing before Justices R S Sodhi and P K Bhasin, Jethmalani said that the prosecution witness Deepak Bhojwani was planted by police to give a statement against Sharma.
A Division Bench of Justice R S Sodhi and Justice P K Bhasin issued notice on his application seeking transfer to some other court to the state and fixed the matter for hearing on Tuesday.
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.
"As the weapon has not been recovered yet by the investigating agency, the question of reliability on such report does not arise," she added.
"The judgement has come as a closure of something that was going on for the past seven years. The way this case was progressing, we had given up all hope of getting justice," an emotionally choked Sabrina said.
Tell us, dear reader, in India, does pulling the right strings and having deep pockets mean you can get away with anything?
Applying balm on the wounds of the two religious groups is a better course of action for the rulers. Common sense dictates the verdict be accepted in good grace by all sides, suggests Virendra Kapoor.
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