Jessica Lal

New Delhi, April 19: The Supreme Court today upheld the life term awarded to Manu Sharma in the Jessica Lal murder, ignoring his claim that a media campaign had prejudiced his trial but rapping the media nonetheless.

The verdict dismissing the appeal by Manu, son of Congress leader Venod Sharma, virtually brings to closure an 11-year-old case billed as a test case for India’s justice system to show it is not at the mercy of well-connected accused.

Manu alias Siddharth Vashisht, 33, has one final chance to ask for a review but can hardly hope for a reprieve because his petition will go to the same bench.

“(The) final door has been closed. It has given us a lot of relief,” said Sabrina Lal, sister of Jessica, a 23-year-old model shot dead on April 29-30 night in 1999 at a party in a Delhi restaurant. “It is not impossible to convict high-profile people if society works together.”

Manu, who has spent most of the past decade in jail as undertrial or convict, may be able to walk free in half-a-dozen years, though. In most states, prisoners become eligible for parole after 14 years or so.

The media had run a campaign for justice after the trial court acquitted Manu in February 2006 in a case where witnesses had turned hostile and police were accused of tampering with evidence. The media reports and candlelight marches had prompted Delhi High Court to take cognisance of the acquittals on its own.

Awarding a life term to Manu in December 2006, the high court had thanked the media but said the case had been decided on merit.

The Supreme Court, though, today criticised the media — both electronic and print — for the way they had covered the case while it was in the high court. But it said the coverage had not influenced the trial.

The Supreme Court said the prosecution had proved its case “beyond reasonable doubt”. It rejected the defence claims that a “tall Sikh gentleman” had shot Jessica and that the two bullets fired at the crime spot had come from different guns.

The top court also upheld the four-year terms handed to Manu’s friends Tony Gill and Vikas Yadav for destroying evidence. Vikas, son of Uttar Pradesh politician D.P. Yadav, is also serving a life term for murdering his sister’s friend Nitish Katara.

The trial court had acquitted all the accused, accepting a ballistic report that appeared to corroborate the two-gun theory but the apex court said the report was too “vague”.

The court noted that the crime weapon was never found, that Manu’s licensed gun had gone missing, and that he had failed to satisfactorily explain its disappearance. The accused had claimed the police had confiscated his gun during a raid on his family’s farmhouse, but a police seizure memo refuted this.

Points that went against Manu were his refusal to submit to a test identification parade and his disappearance after the crime. He had surfaced a long time later to surrender, with a lawyer by his side.

Tony and Vikas had helped Manu flee the scene of crime in a Tata Safari registered with a firm owned by Manu’s family. Manu claimed the Safari had been stolen but the court rejected this in the absence of an FIR on the theft.

The court upheld Manu’s conviction on the basis of eyewitness accounts, including those of socialite Bina Ramani and her daughter Malini, owners of the Tamarind Café where the murder happened.

It noted that Manu “was the holder of a .22-bore pistol; he was witnessed by Beena Ramani as the perpetrator of the crime; a mutilated .22 lead was recovered from the skull of the deceased; two empties of .22 make with mark ‘C’ were found at the spot; a .22 live cartridge with mark ‘C’ was found in the Tata Safari…”