Chandigarh, Feb. 26: The remixes are deafening and the cocktails circulating as fast as fast can be. The place is teeming with PYTs and the rich and famous, many of whom are making a dash for the dance floor.

No one gives a hoot who the owners of the hippest hangout at Chandigarh’s most famous address ? Sector 17 ? are. Not even if they are the family of Manu Sharma, the key accused in the murder of model Jessica Lal who was acquitted last week.

Welcome to Blue Ice.

The two-storey bar-cum-restaurant looks like any other nightclub where the young, rich and elite would come to have a good time. No shadow of Manu hangs over it nor is there a pregnant hush.

“We are here for mauj and masti. We are not interested in knowing if this place is owned by a killer or an angel. This is a socially accepted place to have a nice time,” shrugs a young party animal, Dolly, as she loiters outside.

The attitude of the crowd is not much different. They are untouched that a Chandigarh resident has walked free after allegedly killing a model.

On the contrary, it’s the queries about Manu’s whereabouts that ruffle them a little and prompt them to stare long and hard.

“Saab to bahut din se nahin aaye hain. Aap baithoge ya jaaoge? Aap ka order kya hai?” rattled off a waiter, impatient with the question.

It is ironic that as public outrage at the acquittals gathers steam in the country and finds outlet on TV screens, Manu’s hometown is uncannily silent.

“It is amazing that people of this city have not come out to express their disappointment over the verdict,” rues high court lawyer Ranjan Lakhanpal. “For the first time, the city has shown its true character. People here are not bothered who lives or who dies.”

A resident, however, agreed to speak on condition of anonymity. “We are saddened by the acquittal. But what can we do? If Jessica could be killed for refusing to provide a couple of pegs, then you can imagine what can happen if we come out in the open to express our anger. No, baba, no names please,” she said.

The local media, too, is guarded. “There is fear that the Haryana government could withdraw ads from local dailies publishing stories on the people’s reaction to the verdict,” an ad agency owner said.

Manu’s father Venod Sharma is a senior minister in the Congress government in Haryana.