CHANDIGARH: An advocate of Jalandhar on Saturday beat a hasty retreat in the midst of a press conference to give documentary evidence to "authenticate" that an accused who turned hostile in the Jessica Lal murder case was not in New Delhi when the incident took place on the night of April 29, 1999.
Advocate Anshu Sharma had sent an unsigned invitation for "an important press conference to cover an important and sensational criminal matter being run on Star News for the last few days regarding the Jessica Lal murder case."
Many journalists turned up and were given a brief statement and documents saying that on seeing the channel news item he "immediately recollected that he (Karan Rajput) was my client and I had filed one of his complaints at Dasua Court."
"From the news channel I learnt that he has stated that he (Rajput) was out of Delhi on April 29, 1999. This information is correct..." Sharma said.
The press conference was held at a time when the Opposition INLD has demanded dismissal of Haryana Power Minister Venod Sharma following the sting operation carried out by the Tehelka newsweekly, which claimed that witnesses in the case were bribed to change statements.
But the lawyer failed to answers questions from reporters, including on the motive of holding the press conference and how he procured copies of the documents from the court in Dasuya of an old case on Friday.
The advocate ran from the basement of the Press Club, pleading, "do not grill me". He was followed by cameramen and journalists to the parking where he was surrounded and questioned again.
An acquaintance of Sharma tried to drive him away but the cameramen came in front of the car. In the melee, the car got out of the Press Club leaving Sharma in the midst of the journalists.
The advocate was forced to run on the road in front of the club to board the car, which was parked at some distance from where it sped away.
Manu Sharma, son of the Haryana minister, was the main accused in the ramp model murder case. Tehelka had carried out a three-month sting operation against three key witnesses -- Shyam Munshi, Karan Rajput and Shiv Dass -- who had turned hostile, leading to the acquittal of Manu.
Karan Rajput, a prosecution witness had turned hostile and denied that he was in Delhi on April 29, 1999, the day when model Jessica was allegedly shot in the head by Manu Sharma. Earlier, two other witnesses Shyam Munshi, a bartender at the Tamarind Court restaurant and Shiv Dass Yadav, an electrician, had turned hostile and denied identifying Manu Sharma or having seen the accused shooting Lal.
Sharma claimed Rajput was at Dasuya in connection with the purchase of a truck from a Jalandhar resident on April 29, 1999, and had given an advance of Rs 10,000.
He said the next day Rajput was to make a further payment and collect the documents for the truck but as the seller was unable to furnish them, he cancelled the deal and demanded a return of the advance.
He said in August 2000, Rajput filed a complaint of cheating in the Dasuya court. Sharma contended that this proved that Rajput, who has since died, was not in Delhi on April 29, 1999.
In his opening remarks to the press conference, Sharma said Rajput was his client. "At the time of filing the case in 2000 he (Rajput) did not tell me that he was involved in the Jessica Lal murder case," he said.
"It is my moral duty to tell you this," he said after which the media volley began.
