Sabrina Lall has sent a letter to Tihar Jail stating that she has “no objection” to the release of Manu Sharma, who is serving a life term for killing her sister, Jessica. Sharma has already been behind bars for 15 years. “He destroyed my family. It will be like a catharsis to move on. I also need to get on with my life,” said Sabrina, in reports published in various newspapers. It was 19 years ago, exactly, to the date — April 30, 1999. A man walks into a bar that isn’t actually a bar and shoots a girl for refusing him a drink — in full view of a room full of fashionable people. But it’s what happened in the next few months that immortalised Jessica, when a Delhi court acquitted all defendants and a range of celebrity witnesses changed their stance. Though nobody has any illusions about how vulnerable ordinary people actually are against the might of corrupt institutions, the sheer brazenness of this crime unleashed a rare outrage. The Jessica Lall case was a landmark in so many ways. It began the end of the culture of VIP entitlement and for the first time mobilised citizen participation, with candlelight vigils and protest rallies. Eventually, after an agonising six years, by which time Jessica’s parents were dead, Sharma was sentenced. Justice, if you can call it that, was served. I remember Jessica’s parents as a gentle, law abiding couple who wanted nothing more than to be left alone. It wasn’t possible. She may have been their daughter but for the nation she had become a symbol of gross injustice, ridiculed by a terrifying legal system that seemed to work only for the powerful. Those days, I worked for a news channel and I was, unfortunately, one of those who used to routinely barge into their privacy any time the case came up for hearing. Over the years, the father, Ajit Lall, told me he suffered from crippling insomnia, and basically never slept after this murder. The mother, May, was immobile with grief and no doubt confounded by the realisation that she turned out to be that statistical anomaly whose life was shattered by a violence so profoundly banal. Considering the nightmare the Lalls’ went through, it would be wholly understandable if Sabrina wished Sharma consigned to the flames of hell because nothing is more natural than blame. It is a remarkable choice to be able to accept that life is not always fair. Perhaps you have to experience unbearable trauma to gain the wisdom that creating more damage for the accused doesn’t square anything off in your head. Similarly, at an event with IIM graduates a little while back, Rahul Gandhi mentioned that he used to play badminton with the people who assassinated his grandmother. He said, he knew his father would be killed. RG also went on to say that he feels no hatred for his father’s killers and that both he and his sister have forgiven them completely. Time heals all wounds? Or, maybe, once the sort of dreadful thing one is anticipating to happen actually happens, it gives you the resilience to cope with anything, and toss aside toxic emotions that ruin so much of our lives. The Jessica Lall case was like a movie with an ensemble cast, so many other people’s futures were derailed by a few moments of unthinking recklessness. Two of Sharma’s friends, for instance, who were with him that night, had flourishing careers at Coke. Multinationals are famously intolerant of notoriety and, overnight, they became a dire example of the adage, ‘you are the company you keep’. Shayan Munshi, who had just had some success as an actor, was outed by a sting operation as having lied under oath. He is not heard of now. Fate strikes in mysterious ways. It is safe to presume nobody has suffered more than the man who pulled the trigger, who has had 15 long years to ruminate over his insane behaviour. Perhaps, like Sabrina, it is time to show some compassion to the convict, and finally, put this case to rest.
