Murder convict Manu Sharma, who was out on a two-month parole to tend to his “ailing” mother in Chandigarh, was forced to prematurely return to jail on Tuesday after the media caught him on camera partying at an upscale Delhi lounge bar and his hale and hearty mother attending public functions.
A letter the killer of model Jessica Lall left behind for his mother before leaving for Delhi’s Tihar Jail bears testimony to the amount of pressure he was under from the media. “Maa, I am very sorry for putting you through his ordeal. I assure you I have done nothing wrong, may be it is my faith. I love you very much and I know you will not allow me to do what I am about to do.
“The media has a very biased opinion of me without any facts. They are very powerful and will not let me live. And if I am around you, they will make your life hell as well. I am surrendering to Tihar Jail and I do not know when I will see you again. I love you very much and cannot see you go through this.
“I will always stand by the values you have taught me. Love your son Siddhart [his alias],” the letter reads. Jail authorities confirmed the “surrender”. “Manu voluntarily surrendered before the Tihar administration on Tuesday afternoon,” a jail officer said, adding, “We are still to cancel his parole.”
Close-circuit cameras at LAP, a members-only lounge bar owned by Bollywood actor Arjun Rampal inside Hotel Samrat in the capital’s Chanakyapuri area, had caught Manu partying last Friday, when he should have been in Chandigarh tending to his mother.
His mother Shakti Sharma was seen addressing a press conference to announce an under-19 women’s cricket tournament in Chandigarh. This triggered a major controversy, with legal experts and the opposition BJP alleging that the Delhi government granted Manu parole under “political pressure”, a charge chief minister Sheila Dikshit vehemently denied. She insisted no law was flouted in the grant of the parole.
Manu, son of former Haryana deputy chief minister Venod Sharma, was initially granted a one-month parole till October 22, but lieutenant governor Tejendra Khanna extended it by 30 days on the recommendation of Dikshit.
Rampal confirmed Manu, who is serving a life sentence, visited LAP late on Friday night. “The close-circuit camera shows that Manu Sharma was present in the pub with one of our members, Sahil Dhingra,” he said, adding, “We have cancelled the membership of Dhingra, owner of leading apparel brand Orient Craft, after the incident.”
The two arrived at LAP after Dhingra had a tiff with the son of a senior Delhi Police officer at ‘F’ bar in Hotel Ashok next door. Later, he was picked up by police from LAP, but Manu managed to escape.
Meanwhile, after claiming that it had followed all legal norms while recommending parole for Manu, a clearly embarrassed Delhi government said on Tuesday the murder convict should not have been present at the nightclub and sought a detailed report from Delhi Police on whether he violated parole conditions.
A government official said Sharma’s act of “allegedly” violating parole conditions would make it “very difficult” for him to seek temporary release from prison in future.
