Malini partially identifies’ assailant in photo

According to her, Manu Sharma was wearing glasses in the photograph and that made him look different. Malini says:“The assailant was not wearing any glasses on the party night and I did not look at him very properly. I was not 100 per cent sure but the person in the photograph looked very familiar.”

She also denies that he was ever photographed at the Qutab Colonnade. She maintains that Manu Sharma was not a regular at Qutab Colonnade or that he was her friend. “The photograph shows that he was standing next to a pillar. And there is nopillar in Qutab Colonnade,” she claims.

Malini refutes the charges that she had instigated the assailant on that night. “He looked like a normal person and did not seem hostile to me,” she says. While reconstructing the sequence of events, she recalls that Manu Sharma and his friends came up and started talking out of context. “Five of us including Jessica were standing at the counter inside the restaurant. These three persons suddenly came in and the assailant said, “two whisky-coke”. I politely told them that this was not a bar and moreover, we are not serving. But the person repeated his statement and added that he had money. I again reminded him that since the bar was shut we could not give him a sip for Rs 1,000. Then I left with a friend called Sanjay.”

After four minutes or so, Malini says, that she heard the second bartender, Shayan, shouting that Jessica had been shot. “I was standing on the other side of Tamarind Court. I did not enter the restaurant again.” Like the rest, Malini isunable to say how the assailant managed to escape. “There was panic after the incident,” is all that she remembers.