Independent witnesses kept out in Jessica case: Manu Sharma to SC

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.