Manu Sharma convicted for Jessica murder

The HC bench of Justices R S Sodhi and P K Bhasin criticised the trial court’s assessment of evidence as “immature and self-contradictory”. Jessica Lall was shot dead on April 29/30, 1999 at Tamarind Court in South Delhi.

The court will hear on Wednesday arguments on the quantum of sentence.

Reacting to the verdict, Jessica’s sister Sabrina said: “It’s a vindication for all of us... It is a very emotional day for me.” She lost both her parents during the course of the family’s fight for justice.

Wrapping up the appeal in 25 hearings, the HC bench, which had handed death sentence to Santosh Kumar Singh in the Priyadarshini Mattoo case, said: “We have no hesitation in holding Manu Sharma guilty under Section 302 IPC for the murder of Lall as also under Section 27 Arms Act and Section 201/120.”

The court directed that all three convicted be taken into custody straight away. Manu Sharma, who was not present in the court, later surrendered and was taken to Tihar Jail. Tony Gill, who was there, was immediately taken into custody. Vikas Yadav is already in jail as he’s facing trial in the Nitish Katara murder case.

The court, which fast-tracked hearing in the appeal filed on March 13, 2006, relied heavily on socialite Bina Ramani’s deposition.

Treating her as a reliable witness, the bench said she was “the only brave person present in that party to muster courage to face the shooter while others who claim to be socialites did not have the courage to raise even a little finger to apprehend the culprit.”

Attacking the trial court order on several grounds, Justice Sodhi read out from the 61-page judgment which recorded that Bina Ramani had identified Manu, Gill, Alok Khanna and Vikas Yadav as the persons present at the Tamarind Court at the time of the incident and also saw Manu firing the fatal shot at Jessica.

... contd.