Venod Sharma

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Venod Sharma is a leader of Indian National Congress party from Haryana. He was a Cabinet Minister at the centre under the Narasimha Rao government, and until Oct 2006, was Power minister in the state of Haryana.

Note that the name Venod is commonly spelled "Vinod", but "Venod" is the official spelling.

[edit] Manu Sharma and the Jessica Lal Murder

Venod Sharma is also the father of Manu Sharma, who was first acquitted but later convicted and awarded life sentence for murdering Jessica Lal in the presence of several witnesses who initially claimed having seen him firing the gun.

After the murder, Venod Sharma was denied an MP seat for the central government, but he managed a ticket for the legislative assembly and won as MLA. Subsequently he had become the minister for Power in the state.

However, events during Manu Sharma's trial for murder appears to have undermined Venod Sharma's clout. During the trial all the eye-witnesses turned hostile, and retracted their earlier statements. They were believed to have been pressurized and paid off, largely based on Venod Sharma's political clout. This led to increasing pressure in the public and in the media ^[1]. There was widespread criticism of the Delhi Police for going after the restaurateur Bina Ramani and allowing the main accused, Manu Sharma, to go scot-free. The news portal Tehelka had also carried out a sting operation uncovering direct connections of money being paid by the Sharmas to some of the witnesses. ^[2]. Parties such as the India Lok Dal were clamouring for Venod Sharma's resignation, and the public outcry was at an inopportune time, given forthcoming elections in the neighbouring Punjab and other states.

Finally, Venod Sharma submitted his resignation letter to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson and All-India Congress Committee (AICC) president Sonia Gandhi on Friday 10 October 2006.