By IANS
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Tuesday refused to grant interim bail to Manu Sharma, undergoing a life term in Tihar Jail for killing ramp model Jessica Lall in April 1999 here.
A bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan said Sharma, the son of senior Congress leader and former Haryana minister Venod Sharma, cannot be discharged on bail as he had been convicted by the high court after a reversal of the trial court’s judgement.
Refusing to grant him the interim bail till the pendency of his appeal before the apex court, the bench, which also included Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice J.M. Panchal, decided to hear his plea Jan 22.
Earlier, senior counsel and former law minister Ram Jethmalani, appearing for Sharma, told the bench that the apex court had not heard his client’s plea despite the same being pending before it since May this year.
Jethmalani rued that the court had earlier assured that his appeal would be heard after the summer vacation. Later it was slated to be heard in August but had not been heard till date.
Assailing the high court’s judgement as “devoid of merit” and “suffering from non-application of legal mind”, Jethmalani wanted the apex court to begin hearing his argument immediately.
He said that he would be able to finish his argument within two and half days, while Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanian also sought the same time to finish his own argument to support Sharma’s conviction.
At this, the bench told them it would not be possible for it spare so much of time and adjourned the matter to Jan 22 for the next hearing.
Jethmalani then pleaded for interim bail to Sharma, but the court refused to grant it.
Jethmalani had defended Sharma before the court saying since he belonged to a respectable family and there was no chance of him running away from justice, any conditions could be imposed on him while granting bail.
Sharma’s acquittal by the trial court had led to public outcry after which the Delhi High Court had reversed the order and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
In his petition challenging his conviction by the high court, Sharma has said that the trial court had acquitted him after an elaborate trial and after appreciating the oral and documentary evidence.
He contended that he did not get a fair trial in the high court because of the media pressure, adding that the media had prevented a free and fair hearing through malicious and vicious reports.
Jessica, a ramp-model, had been killed on April 29, 1999 during a party at south Delhi’s Tamarind Court restaurant in full view of a large number of guests, including a top-ranking Delhi Police officer. She was shot dead when she was tending the bar. A trial court had on Feb 21, 2006 acquitted all the nine accused for lack of evidence.
In December the Delhi High Court sentenced Sharma to life imprisonment for the murder, four years’ imprisonment for possession of illegal arms under the Arms Act and another four-year term for criminal conspiracy.
He was also slapped with a Rs.50,000 fine that would be paid to Jessica’s family.