Ten months after the Supreme Court maintained the life sentence to Manu Sharma for the murder of model Jessica Lall in 1999,the Delhi High Court on Friday revived perjury proceedings against actor Shyan Munshi and 18 other witnesses in the case. While model-turned-actor Munshi challenged the initiation of proceedings on the ground that a part of his statement was,in fact,used by the apex court for sentencing Sharma,the court sought detailed replies from all and fixed the next hearing for March 15. As the hearing started before a division bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and G P Mittal,Munshis counsel Aman Lekhi sought exoneration of his client saying that the proceedings were bad in law and that Munshi could not be termed hostile in the case. The Supreme Court did not discard Munshis statement completely,but accepted some portion of his testimony, Lekhi said,referring to the December 2006 findings of the High Court. Delhi governments standing counsel Pawan Sharma,meanwhile,requested the bench to refer 19 of the 31 hostile witnesses,including Munshi,to the magisterial court for starting trial on charges of perjury. Sharma said out of the 31 witnesses,only 19 were available for trial as three had died and the court had relieved 10 of the charges. These people should not be given any further opportunity for hearing, Sharma said. After hearing the arguments,the bench asked the accused to file their replies in writing mentioning their statements before the police and the court,at what points did the High Court think that they had turned hostile and their defence,if any within three weeks. The 19 accused include socialite Andleeb Sehgal,ballistic experts Roop Singh and Prem Sagar,electrician Shiv Shankar Dass and eyewitness Jagannath Jha. In the FIR,Munshi,who was tending the bar with Jessica on April 29,1999,told the police that he saw Manu Sharma fire two bullets one in the air and the other at Jessica,which hit her in the eye during a party at the Tamarind Court bar at South Delhis Qutub Colonnade. Later,he reportedly changed his version before the court,saying he did not understand Hindi and could not decipher the police statement he had signed in a state of frenzy. During the conviction order,Justice R S Sodhi,who initiated the perjury proceedings,had told the lawyer for the witnesses if the Supreme Court sets Manu Sharma free,you go free,if he is convicted,you all are going to be in trouble. On April 20 last year,the Supreme Court upheld Manu Sharmas conviction.
