Hostile witnesses in Jessica Lall murder case face perjury trial

Hostile witnesses in the sensational Jessica Lall murder case will face perjury proceedings in the Delhi high court on Friday.

Ten months after the Supreme Court upheld the life sentence to Manu Sharma in Jessica Lall murder case, the court will begin hearing the case against the witnesses who turned hostile, including model-turned actor Shyan Munshi.

The 1999 murder case that even inspired a film early this year had hit headlines because of witnesses turning hostile leading to Sharma’s acquittal by a trial court.

Soon after the verdict, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and then law minister HR Bhardwaj had said that there should be a witness protection programme so that witnesses can speak the truth fearlessly, but nothing has materialised till date.

The bench, which had taken suo motu cognisance against 32 hostile witnesses while reversing the trial court’s acquittal order and sentencing Sharma to life imprisonment in 2006, adjourned the perjury case in view of Sharma’s appeal before the Supreme Court, which was seized of the matter.