Jessica Lal was a model in New Delhi who was working as a celebrity barmaid at a crowded socialite party when she was shot dead at around 2 am on 30th April 1999.
When the murderer Manu Sharma was denied the consumption of alcohol by Jessica lal, he shot 2 gun rounds, one at the ceiling and even after that when the victim denied, the second shot went straight to her head. With Sharma, 3 of his friends were also involved: Amardeep Singh Gill, Vikas Yadav, and Alok Khanna, who later left the scene. on 3 August 1999 chargesheet were filled with the court. Sharma was charged with murder, destruction of evidence and other different offences, while Khanna, Gill and Yadav faced lesser charges than Sharma, including destruction of evidence, conspiracy and harbouring a suspect. Others people who supported these 4 men were similarly charged were Shyam Sunder Sharma, Amit Jhingan, Yograj Singh, Harvinder Chopra, Vikas Gill, Raja Chopra, Ravinder Krishan Sudan and Dhanraj. The last three named had not yet been surfaced.
The nine of the twelve were acquitted after 7 years when the case reopened on 21st February 2006.
On 15 December 2006, the High Court ruled the decision that Sharma was guilty based on existing evidence, and also criticized the trial judge, S. L. Bhayana.
The judgment said that the lower court had been lax in not considering the testimony of witnesses such as Bina Ramani and Deepak Bhojwani, stating regarding the treatment of the latter’s evidence that, “With very great respect to the learned judge [Bhayana], we point out that this manner of testing the credibility of the witness is hardly a rule of appreciation of evidence. … Obviously, this reflects total lack of application of mind and suggests a hasty approach towards securing a particular end, namely the acquittal.” [1]
In particular, the key witness Munshi came in for serious criticism. The judgment says, of his earlier repudiation of the FIR that “[Munshi] is now claiming that the said statement was recorded in Hindi while he had narrated the whole story in English as he did not know Hindi at all … We do not find this explanation of Munshi to be convincing.”[2] Regarding Munshi’s testimony about the involvement of those two guns were involved, the judgment says: “In court he has taken a somersault and came out with a version that there were two gentlemen at the bar counter. … [W]e have no manner of doubt that on this aspect he is telling a complete lie.[3]”
On 20 December 2006, Sharma was punished with a sentence of life imprisonment and a fine. The other accused, Yadav and Gill, were fined and given four years’ rigorous imprisonment. A plea for Sharma to be sentenced to death was rejected on the grounds that the murder, although intentional, was not premeditated and Sharma was not considered to be a threat to society.
Sharma’s lawyer announced that the decision would be appealed in Supreme Court because the judgment was wrong in holding Bina Ramani to be a witness.
[1] Source; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jessica_Lal#Judgment
[2] Source; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jessica_Lal#Judgment
[3] Source; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jessica_Lal#Judgment
Written By
Ankur Sharma
Course — BBA LLB , Sem.II
Jims Engineering Management Technical Campus ,
(JEMTEC)School of Law,
