Jessica Lal Murder Verdict: Justice Denied

The Jessica Lal murder case has shown how the rich and the powerful can twist the arms of the law enforcement agencies to their own interests.

The Jessica Lal murder verdict resulted in the acquittal of prime accused Manu Sharma (son of former union minister Vinod Sharma) and his associates Vikas Yadav (son of former Rajya Sabha member D.P. Yadav), and Yograj Singh (father of cricketer Yuvraj Singh)

Shyam Sunder Sharma (son-in-law of former president SD Sharma), Amardeep Singh, Vikas Gill, Harvinder, Raja Chopra and Alok Khanna have all been given the clean chit as well.

The April 30th 1999 murder of the model Jassica Lal at the Tamarind Court restaurant in the Capital. It was Bina Ramani's party where there were 250 odd guests and except a single witness i.e. Ramani herself the 100-120 witnesses along with high-profile witnesses like Model-Actor Shayan Munshi who filed the FIR actually went back on their accounts.

Jessica Lal was shot in the head at point blanck range when she refused to serve more alcohol to the accused after the bar was already closed.

This resulted in him pulling out his gun, fire a shot in the air and then without warning shoot the girl in the head. Later he ran away from the crime scene on foot leaving his car behind. His friends later ran away by their car.

In May 1999, the Delhi High Court came down heavily on the city police for carrying out a shoddy investigation. Forensic evidence wasn't gathered in the case and the police found 2 bullets but never recovered the gun.

Accusations of harassing witnesses and tampering with evidence all along the 6 long years that the trial took has meant that the trial could never have a successful verdict.

The acquittal of all 9 accused has sent shockwaves through the country. The family of the victim said they had expected that the accused would eventually be acquitted.

This shows the clear lack of will on the part of our law enforcement system and the archaic law system which allows for cases to go on and on for years.




Case Sheet

• April 1999:
  Jessica Lal allegedly murdered by Manu Sharma
• May 2001:
  Key witness and struggling model Shyan Munshi, turns hostile
• July 2001:
  Malini Ramani identifies Manu Sharma as the man harassing Jessica at the party
• Aug 2001:
  Delhi High Court denies Manu Sharma bail
• Oct 2001:
  Socialite Bina Ramani identifies Manu Sharma in court
• Jan 2002:
  Manu Sharma gets bail
• Feb 2006:
  Delhi court acquits all nine accused in the case