PRESENTED BY:-

Sakshi Ahuja (35)

Shilpi Sharma (50)
Nitin Rana (26)
Pawan Bhatia (27)
Rahul Kakroo (32)
Alisha Sharma (123)
January 5, 1965-April 29, 1999 (aged 34)
Who was Jessica
Lall?
 Jessica Lall, 34, was a
delhi based model
and an aspiring
television presenter.
 She was bubbly,
vivacious and full of
life.
 Main Accused, Sidhharth Vashisht
Aka Manu Sharma (29), Son of Haryana
Former union minister (Venod Sharma)
was accused Of shooting model
Jessica Lall at point blank range .

In the ensuing trial over seven years, Manu Sharma and a number of
others were acquitted on February 21, 2006

Following intense media and public pressure, the prosecution appealed

(a rare measure) and the Delhi High Court conducted proceedings on a
fast track with daily hearings over 25 days,and Manu Sharma was found
guilty of having murdered Jessica Lall. He was sentenced to life
imprisonment on December 20, 2006.
 CONTENT

 Background
 Chronology of dates
 Initial trials
 Acquittal by lower
court
 Sad struggling phase
 Role of Media
 Role of Public
 Appeal and conviction
in HC
 Judgement
 conclusion
 Prominent socialite Bina Ramani,
was the owner of Tamarind Court
Café, the restaurant at which this
murder took place.

 The event was meant to be a

farewell party for her (second)
husband, Canadian Georges
Mailhot, who was travelling abroad.

 A prime fact related to the

circumstances was that Ramani’s
restaurant did not have a license to
serve liquor.While Ramani protests
the license was on its way.
 Jessica was working as a celebrity barmaid at
the Tamarind Court Cafe, in the posh Qutub
area of South Delhi when she was shot dead on
April 30.
 Along with her , other models who were serving
drinks were ….
 Malini Ramani(daughter of bina ramani)
 Shayan Munshi…and many more
 Manu sharma accompanied by
Colleagues.
 Alok Khanna
,Amar deep Singh(Tony)
,Vikas Yadav,

 The four had a few drinks and reached

Tamarind Court in Qutub Colonnade, at
11.15 p.m. Manu Sharma had already
attended one of the special Thursday
nights.
 VIKAS YADAV

Son of Rajya Sabha

member, D.P. Yadav, a
politician from
Sambhal in Uttar
Pradesh

AMAR DEEP SINGH

General manager of
the Coca-Cola
bottling unit in Delhi
 "..I won't give you a
sip even if you give
me a thousand
bucks!"

– Jessica Lall to
Manu Sharma,

before she was

shot .
(overheard by
Malini Ramani
Malini Ramani)
Sharma fled from the restaurant with his friends.
(Alok Khanna, Amardeep Singh Gill (Tony), and Vikas
Yadav.)

Manu Sharma called Amit Jhingan,asked Amit to dig

out
the weapon & Manu Sharma spent the night at Vikas
Yadav’s Ghaziabad residence .
 May 4, 1999: Co-accused, Tony and Ashok Khanna, arrested.
They, along with Vikas Yadav, had allegedly gone with Sharma
that night, and helped him flee.

 May 6,1999: Manu Sharma arrested in Chandigarh

 May 8, 1999: Amit Jhingan, friend of Sharma, arrested for

allegedly getting bloodstains cleaned up from murder-scene.

 May 8, 1999: Bina Ramani, husband Georges Mailhot, and

daughter Malini arrested, and later bailed out, under the Excise
Act, for serving liquor without a license

 May 10, 1999: Rajya Sabha MP D P Yadav, father of the

absconding Vikas Yadav, interrogated by the Delhi police
 May 10, 1999: Joint Commissioner of Police who was at the
restaurant on April 30, was relieved from his post. Earlier, he claimed
to have been unaware of the bar being run without a licence.
 May 14, 1999: Accused Shyam Sunder Sharma, relative of former
President Shanker Dayal Sharma, released on bail.

 May 19, 1999:Vikas Yadav walked into the Delhi police headquarters
and surrendered, but only hours later he walked out, as he carried
anticipatory bail papers from Imphal Court

“Manu (the main accused) came to my

house and wanted to spend the night
there. I only allowed him to stay not
knowing what had happened
On 3rd August 1999: Delhi Police filed the
charge sheet in the court of Metropolitan
magistrate where in Manu Sharma was
named the main accused and charge under-
section 302-Murder
Section 201-Destruction of Evidence
Section 120(b)-Criminal conspiracy
Section 212-Harboring Suspects
Section 27,54 & 59 – Arms Act
Other accused, like Vikas Yadav, Alok Khanna and
Amardeep Singh Gill were charged for destroying evidence
of the case and conspiracy.

Shyam Sunder Sharma, Amit Jhingan, Yograj Singh,

Harvinder Chopra, Vikas Gill , Raja Chopra, Ravinder Krishan
Sudan and Dhanraj,
were all charged variously under sections

⇒120(b),
⇒302,
⇒201
⇒212 ,of the IPC (for giving shelter to the accused and
destroying evidence)
 The Jessica Lall murder case went up for trial in
August 1999, Manu charged with murder and his
friends charged with related crimes such as
destroying evidence and sheltering criminal suspects .

 Four of the witnesses who had initially said they had

seen the murder happen eventually turned hostile.

⇒ Shayan Munshi
⇒ Karan Rajput
⇒ Shivdas Yadav
⇒ Parikshit Sagar
Shayan munshi
 Acquittal BY
LOWER
COURT
 After extensive hearings with nearly a hundred witnesses, a
Delhi trial court headed by Additional Sessions Judge S. L.
Bhayana, acquitted 9 accused in Jessica Lall Murder case,

 The police failed to recover the weapon .

 According to police two cartridges were found, emptied shells of

which were recovered from the spot, were fired from one
weapon.

 All three eyewitnesses listed by the police in its charge

sheet,turned hostile during the trial

 The police also failed to establish a complete chain of the

circumstances leading to the incident and trace the murder
weapon which according to it, was used in the crime
The judgment faulted the
police for deciding on the
accused first
and then collecting
evidence against him,
instead of letting the
evidence
lead them to the
murderer

Manu sharma with the

other accused were finally
released
After the acquittal of all the
accuseds,Sabrina and her father had all
but given up hope of justice ever being
served in the seven year-old murder and
during this period sabrina lost her
parent.

“It’s a terrible feeling that

you could’nt do anything
to the people who
murdered your sister. we
tried our best but
probably even the best
wasn’t good enough”-
sabrina

But as more and more people voiced

their concern, the massive public outcry
forced the police to re-open the case,
they are once again hopeful that the
accused will be brought to justice
WHAT HAPPENED
NEXT?
 IA
MED ELS
H A NN
C

T EX
T ME
SSA
GES

E RS
SP
NW
hundreds of
thousands of hundreds of students,
people e-mailed mnc executives along
and SMS-ed their with retired IAS and
outrage on Army officers
petitions participated in the
forwarded by protest
media channels
and newspapers
to the President

The police have also

Protest also launched an inquiry
started in manu’s against the possibly
home deliberate ineptitude
town,Chandigarh. of their own earlier
investigation
 March 2006
 Justice not done in Jessica case: Sheila Dikshit .
 Kalam promised necessary action in Jessica Lal case.
 Delhi police filed appeal in Jessica case.
 Bailable warrants issued against all accused.
 Jessica case: HC refused witness plea.

April 2006
 Cops examined Sabrina statement.
 Access allowed to Manu Sharma's 1999 interrogation.
 Manu Sharma granted bail and eight others and restraining
them from leaving the country.
 Police to furnished case diary, status report.
 May–June 2006
• Jessica Lal case: Cop transferred
• Delhi police submits synopsis of status report to HC
• Shayan Munshi held, gets bail
• Shayan Munshi interrogated in Jessica Lal case
• Jessica case: Court unhappy with Delhi cops

September 2006
• Warrant against Bina Ramani
• Socialite Bina Ramani arrested
• Dr J S Bedi gets bail
• Bina Ramani in judicial custody until Sept 27
• Bina Ramani granted bail
• Bina Ramani released from Tihar jail
 On September 9 2006, a sting operation by the
news magazine Tehelka was shown on the TV
channel Star News.
 Tehalka explained how the witnesses had been
bribed and coerced into retracting their initial
testimony.
 Venod Sharma was named in the expose as
paying millions of rupees to some of the
witnesses.
 Facing pressure from the central Congress
leaders, Venod Sharma resigned from the Haryana
cabinet(election matter)
 December 18

 Manu Sharma was awarded life imprisonment. The other accused, Vikas
Yadav and AmarDeep Singh Gill, were awarded four years of imprisonment for
destroying evidence
 Manu Sharma's lawyer, R K Naseem said the decision would be appealed in
Supreme Court, because the judgement was wrong in holding Bina Ramani to
have been an eyewitness

Same Day(18 dec)

 It was dal, roti for Manu Sharma in jail.

 Court lauds Bina Ramani's courage.
 It is a victory for all of us: Sabrina Lall.
 mere bhaagya main
According to a widely circulated yehi thaa. taqdeer
media report, Manu Sharma told kaa faislaa yehi
thaa (Such was my
a friend after the trial in Hindi:
fate. This was
decided by destiny).
Depending upon the values and
upbringing of a person there will always
exist a relativity in the perspective of 2 or
more people.
Ethical behavior : Experiences of the
individual and group
The relativist or significant others are the
basis for defining ethical standards
such beliefs may change over time (i.e.,
advertising in the accounting profession)
The individual social responsibility includes
the engagement of each person towards the
community where he lives, which can be
expressed as an interest towards what’s
happening in the community, as well as in the
active participation in the solving of some of
the local problems.

It is further about an individual becoming

responsible in his/her actions that have affect
on communities outside his/her immediate
circle.
“it wasn’t the fault of the judiciary system, other factors
such as the time taken (7 yrs), weak case of
prosecution, hostile witnesses, lack of evidence or you
can say manipulation of evidences were the actual
reason behind this verdict.”
“in India anything can be bought. Its sickens me how
already such rich people would lie and twist there
statements. And for what? To add more money in there
bank account.”

It was evident that people were not lacking the sense

of social responsibility. What was lacking was the spirit
to stand up and fight. Finally patience did run out, and
people had enough.
Expressing dismay over the acquittal of nine accused
of murdering model Jessica Lall, her family members
said ,’the court judgement hardly came as a surprise
to them.
"We had given up hope of getting justice some
time back," Sabrina, Jessica's sister, said soon after
Additional Sessions Judge S L Bhayana acquitted the
nine accused in New Delhi as the Delhi Police failed
to prove charges against Manu Sharma and eight
others.

"The judgement has come as a closure of

something that was going on for the past
seven years. The way this case was
progressing, we had given up all hope of
getting justice," an emotionally choked Sabrina
said.
Patiala House Court Additional Sessions Judge
(ASJ) S L Bhayana, in his order said, ''the
prosecution did not collect enough evidence
and eyewitness to prove its case and a
complete chain of evidence was missing,
which indeed weakens the side of
prosecution.'' Mr Bhayana also said in his
order that the evidence which was put
forward by key eyewitness Shayan Munshi,
who was present at the time of incident had
been corroborated by the report of Center for
Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL).
''The police also failed to recover any weapon
which has been used by the accused. Had the
pistol been recovered, it could have linked
him with the commission of crime,'' he added.
And last but not the least, the lack
of social responsibility is evident
by Ram jethmalani’s statement “I
do not care what people say about
me or how much they criticize
me , I will fight the case like a
responsible advocate”