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- By a Parinda Crime Reporter, February 22, 2006, 09:37 IST
New Delhi: Though the murder of Jessica Lal, a Delhi model moon shining as a bar tender for socialite fashion icon Bina Ramani's private cocktail party, was witnessed by scores of people attending the party the alleged killers have been acquitted after seven years.
It happened because one after the other, the witnesses turned hostile and changed their testimonies in the case where all the accused belonged to powerful families.
The accused included Manu Sharma alias Sidharth Vashisht, whose father was once a Union minister and is now a Haryana state minister. With him was Vikas Yadav, son of don-turned-politician D P Yadav, who helped Manu flee.
Interestingly, only a few days back, the law has been amended to prevent witnesses from turning hostile under pressure.
Interestingly, an amendment to the Law of Contempt too has been made today. Parinda News carries both the stories in today’s news.
This the shocking story of the celebrated Jessica Lal murder on the night of April 29, 1999, at the tony Tamarind Court, a restaurant owned by socialite Bina Ramani that has since the fateful night downed shutters.
It's difficult to tell today, which has been more shocking - the ramp model's murder or the sloppy manner in which the alleged killers were sought to be brought to justice.
This was despite the fact that almost immediately after the killing the police identified the murderer as Manu Sharma, the son of a former Union minister. It seemed an open-and-shut case. The police also had eye-witnesses to the killing.
But when the trial began, the police case turned shaky as key witnesses turned hostile one after another, and the few who didn't became inconsistent with their versions.
It was apparent that the case against Manu Sharma and his two alleged accomplices - Vikas Yadav, son of Rajya Sabha member D P Yadav and a cola company executive Amardeep Singh Gill - was turning progressively weak.
And on Tuesday, additional sessions judge S L Bhayana rejected the prosecution case, already hobbled by hostile witnesses, citing forensic reports that said the two cartridges allegedly recovered from the spot were from two different weapons.
In short, the prosecution case that Manu Sharma - and he alone - fired the bullets that hit Jessica on her temple, thus killing her, fell on its face. The police version and the forensic evidence didn't tally.
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