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`Manu Sharma did not kill Jessica'

Staff Reporter

He was not even present at the party, submits his counsel Ram Jethmalani before High Court

NEW DELHI: Senior counsel Ram Jethmalani, appearing for Siddharth Vashishtha alias Manu Sharma, prime accused in the Jessica Lal murder case, on Wednesday submitted before the Delhi High Court that two assailants had fired one shot each in the Tamarind Court restaurant of socialite Bina Ramani here in which ramp model Jessica Lal was killed in the early hours of April 30, 1999, and Manu was not one of them.

Making his submission on the appeal by the Delhi police against the acquittal of Manu Sharma and eight others in the case by the trial court here in February this year, Mr. Jethmalani said the then Joint Commissioner of Police (Southern Range) Amod Kanth had told the media on the day of the incident that two assailants had come out of the Tamarind Court restaurant immediately after the incident. The pistol-wielding suspect, a tall, burly and bearded man wearing jeans and a T-shirt, had casually walked out of the restaurant after shooting Jessica Lal from point-blank range, Mr. Kanth had reportedly told the media.

The crux of the case was not the weapon of offence but the two bullets fired -- one at the ceiling and the other at the ramp model -- which Manu Sharma did not possess, Mr. Jethmalani said, adding that the police had seized Manu's weapon and refused to return it.

When the Court asked him whether he meant that Manu was not present in the party on that day, Mr. Jethmalani replied in the affirmative. Quoting from the evidence of S-I Sunil Kumar of the Delhi police, Mr. Jethmalani stated that when the police officer on May 1 had asked Ms. Ramani about the details of the incident, she told him to ask Shyan Munshiabout it saying that she did not know.

Mr. Jethmalani submitted that the police had coerced Bina Ramani, her husband George Mailhot and their daughter Malini Ramani to give evidence in the case as per their instructions by usingcleaning of bloodstains on the restaurant floor at the instance of Bina Ramani as `the sword of Damocles' on her.

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