The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the life sentence awarded to Siddhartha Vashisht alias Manu Sharma for killing model Jessica Lall eleven years ago, underlining that the reason was a row over her refusal to serve him a drink.
?As rightly pointed out by the State that it was a case where the deceased, Jessica Lall, was murdered after a row over a drink,? the Division Bench of Justices P Sathasivam and Swatanter Kumar observed in a 220-page judgment.
The court was hearing three separate appeals filed by Manu, son of Haryana politician Venod Sharma and serving a life term handed to him by the Delhi High Court in December 2006, and his two co-accused?Vikas Yadav and Amardeep alias Tony Gill. The HC had reversed the 2006 order of the trial judge acquitting Manu in the Jessica murder case.
Manu had so far denied the prosecution charge that he shot dead Jessica on the night of April 29-30,1999 at a party hosted by socialite Bina Ramani and her husband George Mailhot at the Tamarind Court in South Delhi. Jessica was tending the bar with Ramani?s daughter Malini and actor Shyan Munshi. Both later became witnesses in the case.
Vikas Yadav, son of UP politician D P Yadav, and Gill, a business executive, were with Manu when he allegedly shot Jessica. They later fled in a Tata Safari.
The pistol reportedly ?disappeared? and was never recovered, retarding ballistic investigations. Manu also never ?complained or lodged a report of the missing pistol? with the police.