The Delhi High Court on Tuesday began hearing arguments on the appeal filed by Delhi Police against the acquittal of Siddharth Vashishtha alias Manu Sharma and eight others in the case of model Jessica Lall’s murder in 1999.
Initiating arguments, standing counsel Mukta Gupta said though there was no direct evidence linking Manu Sharma to the allegation that it was he who had shot Jessica at the Tamarind Court restaurant in the early hours of April 30, 1999, there was unbroken chain of circumstantial evidence for his conviction. She said there were several findings by the trial court in the case that were contrary to the facts and thus perverse.
Then additional judge SL Bhayana (now a Delhi High Court judge) had said in his judgment that the investigating officer, Inspector Surender Sharma, had deposed that senior Delhi Police officers had told him that Manu Sharma was involved in the crime but the fact was contrary to it, the lawyer said. She said that, on a request by the officer, the senior officers had helped him in verifying the registered owner of a Tata Safari vehicle recovered from the spot.
The ownership of the vehicle was traced to the Haryana-based Piccadilly Agro Industries in which Manu Sharma was a director, Gupta said. The trial court had held as true the prosecution’s plea that Manu Sharma, Vikas Yadav, Alok Khanna and Amardeep Singh Gill were present at the “Thursday party” organised by socialite Bina Ramani on that day. However, Gupta failed to convince the court on its query whether Manu Sharma was driving the vehicle on the date of the crime.
