By IANS,
New Delhi: Manu Sharma, serving a life term in Tihar Jail for murdering model Jessica Lall in 1999, Thursday questioned in the Supreme Court socialite Bina Ramani’s deposition in the murder case.
Appearing for Sharma, senior counsel Ram Jethmalani sought to discredit Ramani’s deposition, during the hearing of a lawsuit challenging his client’s conviction.
Quoting from a trial court’s ruling, Jethmalani told the bench of Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice Swatanter Kumar that the lower court had said the “evidence of Bina Ramani is of no help to present case”.
Socialite Ramani, in whose Tamarind Court Cafe restaurant at Qutub Colonnade in south Delhi Lall was shot dead on the night between April 29 and 30, 1999, had told the court that after hearing the gun shot she had accosted Manu Sharma and asked him to hand over the gun to her and had even chased him as he fled the spot.
Quoting from the deposition of two other witnesses, who were Ramani’s employees, Jethmalani told the court that she in fact had rushed to the incident site with her employees and had asked, “What has happened and who has done it?”
This implies that there was not an eyewitness to the incident and the high court wrongly convicted Sharma on her deposition, treating her as an eyewitness, he argued.
Jethmalani also alleged that the Delhi Police, which prosecuted the case, deliberately kept out independent witnesses from the list of high-profile people, to suit its theory.
“There were high-profile guests in the party (hosted by Ramani on that fateful day), but the prosecution did not come out with the independent witnesses,” said Jethmalani.
He said that Delhi Police adopted delaying tactics in recording the statements of the high-profile people or used coercive methods to obtain testimony from people working in the party to suit its theory in the case.
“And there were no independent witnesses,” he said.
The trial court verdict acquitting Sharma on Feb 21, 2006, was set aside by the high court on Dec 18, 2008.
The high court had held guilty two other accused in the case, Vikas Yadav and Amarjeet Singh Gill, for destruction of evidence. They have also challenged their conviction and four-year jail terms.