Jessica Lal (5 January 1965 – 30 April 1999) was a model in
New Delhi
New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...
who was working as a celebrity barmaid at a crowded socialite party when she was shot dead at around 2.00am on 30 April 1999. Dozens of witnesses pointed to Siddharth Vashisht, also known as
Manu Sharma
Siddharth Vashisht (born 1977), better known as Manu Sharma, is a murderer of Indian origin, convicted in 2006 to serve life imprisonment for the 1999 murder of Jessica Lal. He was released in June 2020. Sharma is the son of the former Indian Na ...
, the son of
Venod Sharma
Venod Sharma (born 10 January 1948) is an Indian politician and the founder of the Jan Chetna Party. He was student leader and associated with INC student outfit NSUI. He made it into political mainstream when he was elected as MLA from Banur i ...
, a wealthy and influential
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...
-nominated
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
from
Haryana
Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...
, as the murderer. Manu Sharma was later convicted for the murder and sentenced to life, but released less then a year later.
In the first trial, Manu Sharma was acquitted, leading to a huge uproar in the country, despite strong circumstantial evidence to convict the accused, questioning the acquittal, claiming it was not based on merit.
Following intense media and public pressure, the prosecution appealed and the Delhi High Court conducted proceedings on a fast track with daily hearings conducted over 25 days. The trial court judgment was overturned, and Manu Sharma was found guilty of having murdered Lal. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on 20 December 2006. On 2 June 2020 Manu Sharma was released from Tihar Jail by Delhi LG on grounds of good behavior.
Murder
On 29 April 1999, Lal was one of several models working at an unlicensed bar at a party in a restaurant overlooking the
Qutub Minar
The Qutb Minar, also spelled Qutub Minar and Qutab Minar, is a minaret and "victory tower" that forms part of the Qutb complex, which lies at the site of Delhi’s oldest fortified city, Lal Kot, founded by the Tomar Rajputs. It is a UNESCO Worl ...
in
Mehrauli. The bar ran out of liquor at midnight which it only served till 12.30 am. After midnight, Manu Sharma walked in with three friends and demanded to be served liquor, offering 1000 for it. Lal refused to do so and Sharma then fired a
.22 calibre .22 caliber, or 5.6 mm caliber, refers to a common firearms bore diameter of 0.22 inch (5.6 mm).
Cartridges in this caliber include the very widely used .22 Long Rifle and .223 Remington / 5.56×45mm NATO.
.22 inch is also a popular ...
pistol
A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, an ...
at the ceiling as an intimidatory act. Lal refused again, after which Sharma fired again and the second bullet hit Lal in the head, killing her.
[Murder of a Model]
, ''India Today
''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' launched a new onl ...
'', 17 May 1999.[
Due to confusion, a fight followed the shooting, during which Sharma and his friends — Amardeep Singh Gill, Vikas Yadav, and Alok Khanna — left the scene.][
]
Arrests
Soon after the shooting, contact could not be made with Sharma's family and the family was absconding. After eluding police for a few days Khanna and Gill were arrested on 4 May and Sharma on 6 May with the assistance of accomplices. The murder weapon was not recovered and was thought to have been passed on to a friend who had been visiting from the US and who may subsequently have returned there.
The case by now involved several prominent people. Manu Sharma himself was the son of Venod Sharma, an Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...
member, who subsequently resigned from INC
Inc. or inc may refer to:
* Incorporation (business), as a suffix indicating a corporation
* ''Inc.'' (magazine), an American business magazine
* Inc. No World, a Los Angeles-based band
* Indian National Congress, a political party in India
* I ...
. Yadav was the son of state politician, D. P. Yadav
Dharam Pal Yadav, also known as D. P. Yadav, is an Indian politician and a former cabinet minister in the Government of Uttar Pradesh. He belongs to Sarfabad village of Noida in Gautam Buddha Nagar district. D. P. Yadav has served 4 times as ...
. Bina Ramani was a socialite
A socialite is a person from a wealthy and (possibly) aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having traditio ...
and fashion designer
Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion in ...
who had redeveloped the premises of the shooting. Her daughter Malini Ramani knew Lal as a fellow-model. Singh managed the distribution of Maaza in Chandigarh
Chandigarh () is a planned city in India. Chandigarh is bordered by the state of Punjab to the west and the south, and by the state of Haryana to the east. It constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which al ...
.[Model's murderer continues to elude dragnet]
Rediff.com, 3 May 1999.
Amit Jhigan, an accomplice of Sharma, was arrested on 8 May and charged with conspiring to destroy evidence
Evidence for a proposition is what supports this proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the supported proposition is true. What role evidence plays and how it is conceived varies from field to field.
In epistemology, evidenc ...
, as it was believed that he had retrieved the pistol from its original hiding place near the bar. While he was remanded in custody, Yadav was still at large and it had also proved impossible to locate his father, who had promised to deliver his son to the police.[
Ramani, her husband, and her daughter Malini were arrested on the same day as Jhigan. They were charged with operating an illegal bar and, although released on bail, had to surrender their passports. There were several lines of inquiry regarding the family, including whether or not Ramani — a UK national — had the necessary permits to operate a business in India. Another concern was to establish whether or not she had concealed evidence by ordering the cleaning up of ]blood
Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the c ...
at the premises, although by 19 May it had been announced that charges relating to this alleged destruction of evidence could not be brought.[Bina Ramani held, let off. Husband, daughter also in Excise net]
'' The Tribune'', 9 May 1999.[
Yadav was able to obtain Anticipatory bail and presented himself to Delhi police on 19 May without arrest. He claimed to have been in Mumbai and elsewhere during the previous few weeks, and refused to comment regarding whether he had been in contact with his father. He admitted that Sharma had stayed with him on the night of the murder but denied being present himself at the Tamarind Club or having any knowledge of the events that had occurred there until the next day, when he told Sharma to surrender to the police.][Vikas Yadav surrenders, yet escapes arrest]
Rediff.com, 19 May 1999.
Subsequently, he had short spells in custody and longer periods when he was freed on bail, with decisions and overturnings of them being made in various court hearings.[
]
First trial
Charge sheets were filed with the court on 3 August 1999. Sharma was charged with murder, destruction of evidence and other offences, while Khanna, Gill and Yadav faced lesser charges, including destruction of evidence, conspiracy and harbouring a suspect. Others 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 apprehended.
Rediff.com, 3 August 1999.[India campaign for murdered Delhi model](_blank)
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
, 9 March 2006.
Seven years after the case was opened, on 21 February 2006, nine of the twelve accused were acquitted, including Sharma. Jhingan had already been discharged and both Ravinder Kishan Sudan and Dhanraj, were still at large. The prosecution had been affected by 32 of their witnesses becoming "hostile". These included Shayan Munshi, Andleeb Sehgal, Karan Rajput, Shiv Lal Yadav and two ballistics experts, Roop Singh and Prem Sagar. After which, in February 2011, it was announced that all 32 would be facing charges of perjury.[
The trial judge commented after the outcome that
'']The Hindu
''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...
'' newspaper also reported that the judge was aware that the prosecution was not assisted by the hostility of their witnesses, three of whom had seen the shooting, and by the fact that forensic examination contradicted police claims that two cartridges found at the scene were fired from the same weapon. Finally, the judge believed that the police had failed to provide a sufficient explanation of the chain of events which led up to the killing.[
]
Reaction to acquittal
The reaction to the verdict was one of outcry. ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' described the situation a fortnight later There were numerous protest campaigns, including ones involving SMS
Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...
and email, seeking to obtain redress for the perceived miscarriage of justice. Rallies and marches took place, as well as candlelit vigils.[Acquittal in Killing Unleashes Ire at India's Rich]
''The New York Times'', 13 March 2006. The protests and candle light vigils were led by Prabhloch Singh, the founder of an organization called the "Middle Finger Protests", also known as "Human Rights Protection Group" from Manu Sharma's hometown Chandigarh.
V. N. Khare
Vishweshwar Nath Khare was the 33rd Chief Justice of India, serving from 19 December 2002 to 2 May 2004. He was a judge of the Supreme Court of India from 21 March 1997 before he was elevated to the post of Chief Justice.
Early life
Khare was ...
, a former Chief Justice of India, implicitly criticized the trial judge, saying that it should have been an "open and shut" case and that
The Delhi police commissioner announced an investigation to determine where things had gone wrong, and said that among other things it would examine whether there had been a conspiracy, including possibly by tampering with the evidence.[
]
Appeal and conviction in High Court
The police petitioned the High Court for a review of the case and on 22 March 2006 the court issued warrants against the nine defendants who had stood trial. Eight of them were subsequently bailed in April, with restrictions imposed on their ability to leave the country. The ninth defendant, Gill, had not been traced since the original issue of warrants in March.
On 9 September 2006, a sting operation by the news magazine '' Tehelka'' was shown on the TV channel STAR News
ABP News is an Indian Hindi-language free-to-air television news channel owned by ABP Group. The news channel was launched in 1998 originally as STAR News before being acquired by ABP Group. It won the Best Hindi News Channel award in the 21st ...
. This appeared to show that witnesses had been bribed and coerced into retracting their initial testimony. Venod Sharma was named in the exposé as one who had paid money to some of the witnesses. Facing pressure from the central Congress leaders, Venod Sharma resigned from the Haryana cabinet.
Judgment
On 15 December 2006, the High Court ruled that Sharma was guilty based on existing evidence, and also criticised 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
Ambassador Deepak Kishinchand Bhojwani joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1978 as a trained diplomat. He has served as ambassador in seven Latin American countries, being resident ambassador in Colombia (2007-2010), Venezuela (2003-2006) and ...
, stating regarding the treatment of the latter's evidence that, "With very great respect to the learned judge hayana 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."
In particular, the key witness Munshi came in for serious criticism. The judgment says, of his earlier repudiation of the FIR
Firs (''Abies'') are a genus of 48–56 species of evergreen coniferous trees in the family (biology), family Pinaceae. They are found on mountains throughout much of North America, North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The ...
that " unshiis 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." Regarding Munshi's testimony that 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. ... have no manner of doubt that on this aspect he is telling a complete lie."[
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.[
]
Parole for Sharma
On 24 September 2009, the government in Delhi paroled Sharma for a 30-day period so that he could attend to some matters relating to his sick mother and the family business. The parole was further extended by 30 days, during which he was seen partying in a night-club and his mother appeared at public functions. Sharma returned himself to Tihar Jail
Tihar Prisons, also called Tihar Jail and Tihar Ashram, is a prison complex in India and the largest complex of prisons in South Asia. Run by Department of Delhi Prisons, Government of Delhi, the prison contains nine central prisons, and is one ...
on 10 November 2009, two weeks before his parole expired.[
Sharma was granted a limited parole from 28 December 2013 to 5 January 2014. This was to allow him to sit for master's degree examinations in Delhi.
]
Release
In 2020 Sharma was out on bail because of the order of Delhi's LG on the grounds of good behavior.
Supreme Court confirmation of sentences
On 19 April 2010, the Supreme Court of India approved the sentences and said that
Former Solicitor General of India, Gopal Subramaniam
Gopal Subramanium (born ) is an Indian lawyer, international arbitrator, academic and Senior Advocate who practices primarily in the Supreme Court of India and the Delhi High Court. He served as the Solicitor General of India 2009–2011 and ...
arguing on behalf of the prosecution quoted ''Chandra Mohan Tiwari vs. State of M.P.'', (1992) 2 SCC 105 and ''Jaswant Singh vs. State of Haryana'', (2000) 4 SCC 484 to establish his case.
Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, who represented Sharma in the Supreme Court, assailed the High Court verdict, alleging that the media had prejudged the issue and conducted a campaign to vilify his client. The Supreme Court accepted that there had been an element of "trial by media" but believed that it had not affected the decision of the High Court. The judges who maintained the Delhi High Court
The High Court of Delhi (IAST: ''dillī uchcha nyāyālaya'') was established on 31 October 1966, through the ''Delhi High Court Act, 1966'', with four judges, Chief Justice K. S. Hegde, Justice I. D. Dua, Justice H. R. Khanna and Justice S. ...
judgement pronounced by Justice R.S. Sodhi, were Justice P. Sathasivam
Palanisamy Sathasivam (born 27 April 1949) is an Indian judge who served as the 40th Chief Justice of India, holding the office from 2013 to 2014. On retirement from his judicial career, Sathasivam was appointed the 21st List of governors of K ...
and Justice Swatanter Kumar
Swatanter Kumar is a retired justice of the Supreme Court of India and former chairperson of the National Green Tribunal. He is also former chief justice of Bombay High Court and judge of the Delhi High Court and the Punjab and Haryana High Court ...
.
Perjury charges
In May 2013, Delhi High Court ordered prosecution of Bollywood actor Shayan Munshi and a ballistic expert, P. S. Manocha, for turning hostile. The court cleared a further 17 people whose allegedly hostile position was under review. Ten other people had been discharged from claims of perjury in earlier hearings and three had died since the original trial.
In popular culture
''No One Killed Jessica
''No One Killed Jessica'' is a 2011 Indian Hindi-language crime thriller film directed and written by Raj Kumar Gupta. It stars Vidya Balan and Rani Mukerji in lead roles, with Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub and Myra Karn in supporting roles. The film ...
'', a 2011 Hindi film starring Rani Mukherjee and Vidya Balan, was inspired by the incident. ''Six Suspects
''Six Suspects'' is the second novel by Vikas Swarup, an Indian diplomat and author of ''The New York Times'' bestseller ''Q & A (novel), Q&A''. It was published by Transworld in 2016 and in the US by Minotaur Books and has been optioned for a ...
'', a 2016 novel by Vikas Swarup
Vikas Swarup (born 22 June 1961) is a retired Indian diplomat and writer. He retired from the Indian Foreign Service as the Secretary (West) at the Ministry of External Affairs, India on 30 June 2021 and has previously served as High Commissione ...
centred on a similar murder
See also
*Law of India
The legal system of India consists of civil, common law and customary, Islamic ethics, or religious law within the legal framework inherited from the colonial era and various legislation first introduced by the British are still in effect in ...
* Ram Jethmalani, Indian lawyer and Manu Sharma's defence counsel
References
External links
News summary at Rediff.com
News summary at the BBC
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lal, Jessica
Deaths by firearm in India
People murdered in India
Crime in Delhi
2006 in India
Indian case law
1990s in Delhi
20th-century Indian women
20th-century Indian people
1999 murders in India
Women in Delhi