New Delhi: Manu Sharma, who has
challenged his conviction and life sentence in Jessica Lall
murder case, today alleged in the Supreme Court that the
prosecution deliberately kept out independent witnesses from
the list of high-profile people to suit its theory.
"There were high-profile guests in the party but the
prosecution did not come out with the independent witnesses,"
senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, appearing for Sharma, told a
Bench comprising Justices P Sathasivam and Swatanter Kumar.
He submitted either the Delhi Police adopted delaying
tactics in recording the statements of high-profile people
present during the party or used coercive method to obtain
testimony from people working in the party to suit its theory
in the case.
"And there were no independent witnesses," he said while
narrating the sequence in which the statements were recorded
by the police after the incident.
The prosecution case was that Lall was shot dead
allegedly by Manu Sharma at the Tamarind Court Cafe restaurant
owned by socialite Bina Ramani at Qutub Colonade in South
Delhi on the intervening night of April 29-30, 1999, where
Bina had hosted a party for her Canadian husband George
Mailhot who was leaving the country.
Jethamalani said prosecution did not record the statement
of Ramani`s daughter Malini immediately after despite the fact
that fashion designer Rohit Bal, who was the first person to
inform the police about the incident, had said that junior
Ramani had come out shouting that Jessica was shot.
PTI
