Slain model Jessica Lall's sister Sabrina Lall's written "forgiveness" to her sister's killer Manu Sharma may not assure his release from Tihar jail, as the Sentence Review Board, which takes the final call on prisoners' release, does not consider it as a parameter to free them. Morever, Sharma's remittance had been rejected once, about six months ago.
The Sentence Review Board meeting scheduled for Tuesday, which was to consider Sharma's release, has also been postponed.
Sharma's case was taken up in 2017 by the Sentence Review Board which had refused him early release. A senior officer from Delhi Prisons told DNA, "It was about six months ago that a Sentence Review Board meeting had turned down the proposal for Sharma's early release."
Manu Sharma, son of former Congress politician Venod Sharma, was convicted of shooting dead Jessica Lall during a private party in 1999. When Jessica refused to serve him a drink late at night, a furious Manu whipped out his gun and shot her at point blank range, according to witnesses.
While DG (Prisons, Ajay Kashyap, confirmed that the Tuesday meeting has been postponed, officials said it is the responsibility of the Delhi government to fix a new date for the meeting. The board consists of minister in charge of Delhi prisons; principal secretary (home); government of Delhi NCT; secretary, law and justice; district and sessions judge, Delhi; a senior police officer not below the rank of Joint Commissioner of Police as nominated by the Delhi police commissioner; and the director general of Delhi prisons.
Sharma has been in Tihar jail for the past 12 years and was recently shifted to Open Jail, where inmates are allowed to exit the jail premises, but return every evening.
On Monday, reports about a letter by Sabrina surfaced in media. In the letter, Sabrina stated she has "forgiven him" and that she will not object to his release from prison. "His conviction was closure for me," she wrote.
As per a Supreme Court directive, the board meets every six months to decide on releasing life convicts, who have spent 14 years in jail, based on their good conduct.
The board takes a call on their release, keeping in mind a number of factors, including, "Whether the convicts still posed a threat to society, their conduct in jail and other behavioural aspects," sources said.
