The Hindu : National : Verdict on Manu Sharma’s bail reserved

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 17, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

National

National

Verdict on Manu Sharma’s bail reserved

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved verdict on the bail application of Manu Sharma, son of senior Congress leader Vinod Sharma, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Jessica Lal murder case.

A Bench of Justices C.K. Thakker and D.K. Jain reserved verdict at the conclusion of arguments by senior counsel Ram Jethmalani for the petitioner and Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam for the Delhi government opposing the application. The appeal filed by Manu Sharma challenging the High Court judgment reversing the trial court’s order of acquittal is still pending.

The prosecution case was that Jessica Lal was shot dead on the intervening night of April 29-30, 1999, at a party at the Qutub Colonnade restaurant in south Delhi. A trial court had on February 21, 2006, acquitted all the nine accused observing that there was lack of evidence against them. However, the Delhi High Court on December 20, 2006, reversed the acquittal and awarded life imprisonment to Manu Sharma.

Mr. Jethmalani contended that the High Court’s verdict was perverse and in his view, the “judgment of conviction is not entitled to be qualified as a judgment. The case was foisted on Manu Sharma and evidence was fabricated.”

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National