New Delhi, December 2
The Supreme Court today dismissed the appeal of model Jessica Lall murder case main accused Sidharth Vashishat, alias Manu Sharma, son of Chandigarh-based former Union Minister Vinod Sharma, against the Delhi High Court order cancelling his interim bail.
A Bench comprising Mr Justice N. Santhosh Hegde and Mr Justice B. P. Singh rejected the plea of Manu’s counsel Ram Jethmalani for setting aside the high court’s November 11 order, cancelling his bail, granted
initially in January 2002 and extended seven times since then.
“We are not inclined to entertain this petition,” the Bench said, and asked Mr Jethmalani whether in a case of this nature the bail should be granted at all.
After Mr Jethmalani failed to convince the apex court that its intervention was required because certain observations of the high court could “prejudice” Manu’s trial, the Bench in its order recorded that the observations would not “influence” the trial court proceedings.
The Supreme Court advised Manu’s counsel that he was at liberty to move the high court again for the bail.
After high court Judge J. D. Kapoor cancelled Manu’s interim bail, he surrendered before the trial court on November 13 and has since been remanded in judicial custody.
Manu has been charged by the Delhi Police with shooting dead ramp model Jessica Lall at Tamrind Court restaurant, run by socialite Bina Ramani, on April 30, 1999, for allegedly refusing to serve him liquor late at night while she was acting as a bar tender there.
Refusing to extend Manu’s bail, the high court had observed that there was “consistant circumstancial evidence” linking him to the alleged offence.
When Mr Jethmalani argued that there was no eye witness to the alleged crime and none of the prosecution witnesses had supported its case, the court observed: “It has become a big problem in society. There are people who watch an incident and nobody comes forward to support the prosecution.”
Manu’s counsel claimed that two forensic reports had established that the two bullets recovered by the police from the spot had been fired from two different pistols, which raised serious doubts on the
prosecution theory.
