Siddharth Vashisht

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Siddharth Vashisht, popularly known by his alias Manu Sharma, (b. 1977) is the son of the Indian politician Venod Sharma. He was convicted on 18th December 2006 for the murder of Jessica Lall (a model) in 1999, during a retrial of the controversial case which had transfixed the country(India). On 20th December 2006, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi High court.

The son of a powerful politician and heir to a sugar mill fortune, Manu Sharma and his family bribed and pressurized witnesses who changed their testimony during the initial trial lasting seven years. Despite dozens of witnesses, Manu Sharma, along with seven other well-connected defendants, was acquitted of all charges by judge S.L. Bhayana on February 21, 2006.

The decision left a situation where a prominent person was murdered in view of dozens of people, yet there was no one to point fingers to. Wide public outcry led to the case being re-admitted in the Delhi High court in March 2006, where it was tried on a "fast track" basis, and Manu was found guilty on 18 December after 25 sittings.

This case is widely viewed as a litmus test of India's turning image. It is one of several where the high and mighty showed themselves to be above the Law in India (see Sanjeev Nanda). That the tides were changing was clear in the sentence handed out by the same High Court bench in the Priyadarshini Mattoo case. It is widely believed that more than anything else it is the unbridled press, and especially the new regional TV channels that helped bring the case to a retrial, maintaining the faith of people in the Indian Judiciary.

Contents 1 Family Background 2 The murder 2.1 The Cover-Up 2.2 Acquittal 2.3 Media Pressure 2.4 Venod Sharma Resigns 3 Judgement 4 References

[edit] Family Background

Manu Sharma is the son of leading Haryana politician Venod Sharma of the Indian Congress Party. Venod Sharma, who had served as a Minister at the centre in the Narasimha Rao cabinet, was president of the Congress Party in Haryana at the time of the crime. Manu's uncle is the son-in-law of former president of India, Shankar Dayal Sharma and the family owns a number of sugar mills and entertainment businesses in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.

After the negative publicity following the murder, Venod Sharma was denied a congress ticket for the Parliamentary elections, but he managed to win an election to the state legislature in 2004 and was inducted into the State cabinet as Minister of Power.

However after being named in a sting operation, he has resigned.

[edit] The murder

Seven days after the murder, Manu Sharma surrendered to the police, and made a confession which was tape recorded. However, no attempt was made to formalize his statement in front of a magistrate or to obtaining evidence based on this confession for the trial. On October 2, 2006, the NDTV news channel obtained the audiotape of the confession and broadcast some segments from it: ^[1]

• Manu: There was Jessica Lall, I did not know her name.
  I was told even if you give a thousand bucks, I will not give a sip of wine and I said that we have got an arrangement there. I pulled out my pistol there
  ... and I fired one shot in the air.

• Police: Air?

• Manu: Yes, that is inside the Colonnade. So it went into the roof and nobody bothered, nobody moved. Then I pointed at Jessica and what I intended to do was I pointed slightly away from her so that I could see her hair, I wanted to generally shoot.

• Police: What was the idea?

• Manu: The idea at that time was to shoot in challenge. It was embarrassing to hear that even if I paid a thousand bucks I would not get a sip of drink.
  I pointed towards her a little and fired the shot. So I think I hit someone, I was just trying to see what had happened, when this lady comes up there.

• Police: What type of lady?

• Manu: Oldish, thin and she says you don't worry and stay here and then I realised something had happened. Then I could hear people saying somebody has shot.
  I knew I should move. I took a lift on scooter/motorcycle and I saw a little garden and sort of a dhaba and I put my pistol there. I took a hitch from a scooter, a Tata Safari and a tractor before I reached right in front of Tony's house.
  Alok and Vikas were all there by that time. When I inquired, they told me, "I think she is dead". I said single gunshot, he said, "yes". I said who is she – "Jessica Lall".

A number of eye witnesses made initial statements that corroborated with this confession. A consistent story emerged: Manu along with friends Amardeep Singh and Alok Khanna (at the time both were senior executives with Coca-Cola India), Vikas Yadav (son of notorious criminal and member of parliament DP Yadav and prime accused in the Nitish Katara murder case), and Amit Jhingan, had entered the bar after it had closed. Jessical Lal had rebuffed Manu's request for a drink. A powerful politician's son, Manu was unaccustomed to being denied. An altercation ensued, and at one point Manu commented that "I could have a sip of you for Rs 1000." Eventually Manu brought out his 0.22 pistol from his pocket, and fired one shot into the air, and the second straight at Jessica's head, grievously wounding her; she eventually died a few hours later at the Apollo hospital.

The five friends fled immediately. Manu went into hiding for seven days, conferring with family, and initially his father apparently said "face the punishment, what can I do?" ^[2] However, he subsequently started helping his son. Manu went underground in a house indicated by his father in South Delhi, and the pistol was disposed of (it was never recovered - what Manu Sharma said about it is not clear). After his surrender, one by one, all the statements by eyewitnesses, as well as Manu's own confession, were retracted or were thrown out by the court due to inadequate legal process.

[edit] The Cover-Up

In the original trial, very few would come forward to depose. Eyewitnesses who initially claimed to have seen the murder, such as Shyan Munshi, Karan Rajput and Shivdas Yadav, all turned hostile. Increasingly, revelations in the media have been piecing together the story of the pressure, bribery and coercion that led to this reversal.

In July-September 2006, the magazine Tehelka carried out a three month long sting operation against these three key witnesses, which was aired in a leading Hindi News channel, leading to increasing furore. ^[3]

One of the key witnesses was Karan Rajput, who was present at the restaurant to borrow money from his nephew, Jitendra, the manager at the bar. Rajput who had long been an alcoholic, was asked by his nephew to sit at a chair which happened to be facing the bar where Shayan and Jessica were making drinks. After the murder, Karan initially claimed that he had witnessed how a boy in a white T-shirt came up to the bar and shot Jessica. However, in the court testimony, he turned hostile, denying that he had been there at all.

After the incident Karan Rajput lived a life of parties and drinking bouts - although he had no job or other visible means of income. In January 2005, he died of cirrhosis of the liver. The Tehelka expose revealed ^[4] that Karan Rajput was a regular visitor to Venod Sharma's offices in Chandigarh and Okhla, Delhi where he would collect money. Friends and drinking buddies who would go with him mention that a total figure between Rs. 20 Lakhs to 35 lakhs was paid. Here is part of the conversation that the Tehelka reporter had with a friend of Karan^[3]:

• Surendra: I saw him receiving money at Okhla.
• Question: Where at Okhla?
• Surendra: From Sharma’s place. In front of Okhla depot there is a building. Sharma owns entire building. We used to collect money from there itself.
• Question: How much money?
• Surendra: Whatever we needed.
• Question: Whatever you say?
• Surendra: Whatever we demand. We used to get 20-25 thousand every month just like that. His number is in mamu’s ( Karan Rajput) diary.
  ...
• Question: Would you accompany Rajput when he used to go to collect money ?
• Surendra: Yes.
• Question: How would they pay, cheque or cash?
• Surendra: Cheque.
• Question: How much money would come?
• Surendra: They gave twice in Nepal.
• Question: When you would go to Okhla was the amount fixed?
• Surendra: Later they fixed it at 20 thousand. Initially he would get 60 thousand, sometime up to one or two lakh. Sharma had taken his (Karan Rajput) life’s entire responsibility.

Another witness, the electrician Shivdas Yadav, was standing behind the bar when the murder occurred. In his initial statement, subsequently retracted, he also claimed to have witnessed the murder by Manu. At some point before the trial, Shivdas also came into some money with which and opened an electrician's business in Uttar Pradesh. Recently, when a journalist from Tehelka called Shivdas posing to be Jessica Lall's grieving sister, Shivdas admitted ^[3] that his initial confession, and that of the others, were all true, and that he was scared of what might happen to him were he to tell the truth.

A third witness, Shyan Munshi was right there, serving behind the bar with Jessica. He comes from an upper class family and it was initially hoped that he would be a reliable witness. He initially signed a First Information Report with the police witnessing to the murder, and that both shots were fired by the same person. However, later in court he said that he did not know Hindi and could not tell what he had signed - and then he changed the story to state that Manu had only fired once, at the ceiling. The second shot, the one that killed Jessica, was fired by someone else, whom he could not describe.

Subsequently the media revealed that he had acted in a number of Hindi-speaking films. When a reporter posing as a casting director for a foreign film venture approached him, he discussed nuances of Hindi grammar^[3]: "Like in Hindi word `car’ is feminine gender while in Bengali it’s neutral gender."

There were indications that the Delhi Police also may have introduced false forensic evidence, by switching one of the spent cartridges for another 0.22 one - subsequently the tests indicated that the two cartridges had been fired from different guns. This together with Shyan Munshi's testimony, led to the "two-gun theory" and completely undermined the prosecution's own case. In view of the fact that the weapon was never recovered, other police officers themselves questioned as to why the bullets were at all sent for testing.

[edit] Acquittal

Sharma was acquitted of all charges in February 2006. Not a single trustworthy witness could be found, despite the fact that the murder had been committed in the presence of dozens of people, including senior police officers, at the bar of the Tamarind Court Cafe restaurant in Delhi. All the witnesses who had originally claimed to have seen Manu Sharma shoot Jessica turned hostile during the six years of the court case.

Not many people in Chandigarh are surprised at the acquittal of this allegedly high profile criminal. Until a few days before the judgment, 29-year-old Manu was seen attending parties in the town, and running his popular disco-cum-pub, Blue Ice, in Chandigarh’s posh Sector 17 market. He has a reputation for throwing well-organized parties around town. Shortly after he was released on bail in 2003, there was a fight between employees of Blue Ice and some customers; Manu too was reportedly involved, but his name was dropped from the case and the disco’s manager was booked instead.

[edit] Media Pressure

The acquittal caused widespread outrage in India. The President of India, Dr. Abdul Kalam, and others were appealed to so that the case could be reopened, since it appeared to be a clear case of brazen misuse of power and influence by persons in high places. Even in the venal atmosphere of the criminal justice system in India where the art of buying/ intimidating/ cajoling witnesses and bribing investigating policemen is well known, the circumstances were deemed too shocking.

On March 22, 2006, the Delhi High Court admitted an appeal by the police against the Jessica Lal murder acquittals, issuing bailable warrants against prime accused Manu Sharma and eight others and restraining them from leaving the country. ^[5]

The further revelations in the media ^[2][3] rekindled hopes that additional evidence may now be presented for both the original crime as well as the cover-up - in terms of cheque payments and other connections. Also, Venod Sharma's mobile phone number was found among the numbers listed on Karan Rajput's mobile; these calls could also be traced.

The prosecution is under considerable pressure in the court cases. The media pressure is also telling on the key witnesses, especially Shyan Munshi. In May 2006, Shyan tried to illegally leave the country but was arrested at Kolkata airport.

[edit] Venod Sharma Resigns

The media exposes, directly linking Venod Sharma to the key witnesses, led to calls for his resignation in the Parliament of India, particularly from the opposition party Indian Lok Dal. On October 6, 2006, Venod Sharma, succumbed to the pressure and resigned from the Congress ministry in Haryana. ^[2]\

[edit] Judgement

The terms of the high court appeal was not a re-trial, but merely an appeal that the previous bench had not considered the evidence already presented.

On December 18, 2006, the High Court bench of Justice R S Sodhi and Justice P K Bhasin, in a 61-page judgement, held Manu Sharma guilty of murdering Jessica Lall. The judgement said that the lower court had been lax in not considering the testimony of witnesses such as Deepak Bhojwani: "With very great respect to the learned judge, 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." ^[6]

In particular, witness Shyan Munshi came in for serious criticism: he may be facing criminal proceedings. The judgement says, of his repudiating his own FIR: "[Munshi]is now claiming is 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 introducing the two-gun theory, the judgement says: "In court he has taken a somersault and came out with a version that there were two gentlemen at the bar counter. ... [W]e have no manner of doubt that on this aspect he is telling a complete lie... "^[7] All 32 witnesses who turned hostile have been asked to appear before the court on February 21 to explain why they should not be tried for perjury.

On December 20, the High Court bench sentenced Manu Sharma to life imprisonment, and he was ordered to pay a compensation of Rs 50,000 to Jessica's family. The court also awarded four-year jail terms to

• Vikas Yadav, son of gangster and former Rajya Sabha MP DP Yadav (Vikas is already in jail as an undertrial in Nitish Katara murder case), and
• former Coca Cola General Manager Amardeep Singh Gill

for their role in destroying evidence. ^[8]

Manu Sharma's lawyer, R K Naseem said the decision would be appealed in Supreme Court, because the judgement was wrong in holding Bina Ramani to have been an eyewitness.

[edit] References

^[9]

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