NEW DELHI, 21 December 2006 — The son of an influential member of India’s ruling Congress party was sentenced to life in prison yesterday after a court found him guilty of murdering a model in 1999 in a retrial that transfixed the country.
Manu Sharma, son of Haryana Congress leader Vinod Sharma, was handed down the sentence by the Delhi High Court yesterday on charges of firing the fatal shot at Jessica Lall.
Sharma was convicted on Monday by the same court which found he shot dead Lall, 34, as she tended the bar at an exclusive New Delhi party for refusing to serve him a drink after the bar closed.
Sharma had been acquitted by a lower court earlier this year, a verdict which sparked public outrage and ultimately led to a retrial.
“We are of the view that this case is one that has shaken the confidence of society in the criminal justice delivery system,” a two-judge bench said.
“Justice would be satisfied if we award him (a) sentence of life,” the court ruled. The court also ordered Sharma to pay a fine of 50,000 rupees ($1,110) to the victim’s family.
The bench said: “There is nothing on record that the offence falls under the rarest of rare category. The murder though intentional was committed without any prior motive. We have heard the counsel for both the parties, we are of the view that though the case has shaken the conscience of the society yet it cannot be held that the convict (Sharma) deserved the maximum punishment,” the bench said. Pronouncing the life sentence for Sharma, the bench observed: “It cannot be held that there is no probability that the offender would reform himself in future.”
“This is a fitting punishment for Manu Sharma. I am very happy,” said Sabrina Lall, the victim’s sister who led the seven-year-old fight for justice. Lall’s family and friends alleged a police cover up in the investigations to protect the accused.
The public and media, who saw the initial verdict as evidence the rich and powerful were beyond the reach of justice, held candle-lit processions, ran mobile phone SMS campaigns and one TV news station delivered a petition to the president signed by more than 200,000 people.
The verdict came as India’s courts seemed to be flexing their muscles with a series of high-profile verdicts in recent weeks.
Earlier this month, Coal Minister Shibu Soren was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering a former aide.
Then, opposition politician and former international cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu was sentenced to three years’ jail for a road-rage killing 18 years ago.
And in another retrial accelerated because of public pressure, the lawyer son of a former police officer was sentenced to death in October for the 1996 rape and murder of law student Priyadarshini Mattoo, seven years after he was first acquitted.
Two of Sharma’s friends — Vikas Yadav and Amardeep Gill — were also jailed for four years each for destroying evidence and helping Sharma escape from the trendy nightspot where he shot Lall for refusing to serve him a drink. Rana said all three men would appeal.
“This was in my fate. This was decided by destiny,” Sharma told a friend after the sentence, the Press Trust of India reported.
Legal experts said police botched the investigation and the acquittal came after a string of witnesses testifying for the prosecution changed their stories and turned “hostile” — reportedly after being paid off.
The court also issued notices to 29 witnesses who retracted their statements, asking them to appear in the court in February.
