Crossing the bar

At a party attended by many of the Page 3 regulars, Manu reportedly shot Jessica for refusing to give him a drink since the bar was shut. The murder had the city hooked over the next few weeks but gradually public interest ebbed. Over the last five years witnesses too have turned hostile.

8216;8216;I would certainly be happy to see Manu Sharma punished for his crimes,8217;8217; says Sabrina Lal, Jessica8217;s sister, 8216;8216;But I just couldn8217;t keep up. The rut8230;going to the courts everyday, talking to the lawyers and policemen, worrying about who is going to say what in court the next day8230;It was all worth it till I could at least feel that the accused was behind bars, but once he was out, I just gave up.8217;8217;

For the last two-and-a-half years, SK Saxena, the state prosecutor has been coming alone to the court, examining each of the 101 witnesses. 8216;8216;The family seems to have washed their hands off the case but it8217;s my job to fight,8217;8217; he says. Now that he8217;s through examining everyone from Page 3 designers to electricians, policemen and doctors, Saxena can8217;t be blamed for wishing the fight had begun better.

THREE witnesses, including Shayan Munshi who lodged the police complaint, have turned hostile.

8216;8216;After Munshi turned hostile, I lost hope. But more than that, I felt8230;what8217;s the point? I mean, he was a friend,8217;8217; says Sabrina.

Munshi, a model who made his film debut with Jhankar Beats last year, was at the bar with Jessica and Bina Ramani8217;s daughter Malini but now categorically denies he saw Manu firing. His testimony was followed by other eyewitnesses8212;Shiv Das Yadav, the restaurant8217;s electrician and Karan Rajput, a relative of a restaurant employee. Both turned hostile with Rajput even denying that he was in Delhi at the time of the incident.

The Ramanis who initially ran into trouble with the police for 8216;8216;tampering8217;8217; with evidence and for serving liquor at theirrestaurant when they weren8217;t authorised to, however have stuck with their statement. On 5 July, 2001, Malini Ramani told the court: 8216;8216;At about 1.45 am 8216;8216;I went with my friend Sanjay Mehtani to the restaurant to look for something to eat8230;I found that Jessica was there and Shayan Munshi, my electrician and couple of waiters8230;couple of guys went in8230;four, maybe five8230;One of them asked me 8216;8216;Could I have two whiskeys?8217;8217; He was wearing jeans and a white T-shirt8230;and I said 8216;8216;Sorry, Bar is closed.8217;8217; He kept asking me and Jessica8230;8217;8217;

She told the court she left the room but two minutes later Shayan came running to her screaming that Jessica had been shot.

AS the defence gets ready to unveil its line of argument, legal experts point out that it is expected to exploit Munshi8217;s testimony and also the forensic report. Munshi had said he saw one man firing into the air and then saw another man firing. The forensic report also says the bullets recovered from Jessica8217;s head and those from the restaurant were fired from different pistols.

The case will now to go to the sessions court on November 1 when nine of the 11 accused, all out on bail, will be given their chance to reply to charges of murder, conspiracy and destruction of evidence.

Meanwhile, Manu Sharma is back to looking after his business interests. His family runs a number of theatres and hotels including the discotheque Blue Ice in Chandigarh8217;s Sector 17. Another hotel8212;Lyons8212;has just opened after a complete makover. Manu, though, say family friends, stays generally out of Chandigarh looking after the family8217;s sugar mills.

With Varinder Bhatia in Chandigarh