Manu’s future hinges on the nuances of ‘witness’

NEW DELHI: Socialite Bina Ramani’s claim that she saw Manu Sharma firing at Jessica Lal, the basis for Manu Sharma’s conviction, has engendered a public debate because of the conflicting legal outcomes it has produced.

Justice RS Sodhi and Justice PK Bhasin of the Delhi high court, who held Sharma guilty on Monday, determined that Ramani had witnessed the shooting. This reading of evidence could have a strong bearing on the outcome of appeals to be filed in the Supreme Court.

SL Bhayana, the former additional sessions judge who acquitted Sharma of the charge of murdering Lal, had said Ramani had not seen the shooting. Bhayana has since been elevated to the high court.

The Sodhi-Bhasin bench has called Ramani, currently in Goa, a ‘brave’ person among the many socialites who were present when the incident took place but did not testify in the case.  

The high court found ‘positive assertion’ in Ramani’s statement before Judge Bhayana, in which she said: “I saw a few people standing next to the counter and I heard a shot. A moment later, I heard another shot. Jessica Lal was standing with people at the far end and I saw her falling down.”

Ramani further stated: “Shayan Munshi said that Jessica Lal had been shot. I told Shyan to call the police or doctor or ambulance and I stopped the man accompanying him. There was commotion.”

She said at that point people who were with Jessica Lal had started coming out. “The companion of Shayan was wearing a white T-shirt. He was chubby and fair and I asked him who he was. I asked him why he was there [at the premises] and why he had shot Jessica Lall.”

Ramani said in the statement that she then asked the man to hand over his gun. “I thought he might have a gun. He said it was not him. I asked him again and he kept quiet and shaking his hand to say that it was not him. As all others were leaving, Shayan’s companion also shoved me aside and went out.”

Ramani said she followed the man: “I ran after him. He was a few steps ahead of me and I could not catch him. In the meantime, I was shouting instructions to guests to call a hospital or take Jessica Lall [there].”

When Ramani reached the gate of the building, she saw her husband. “My husband was standing there and I told him that this was the man who had shot Jessica Lall and told him to note what car he got into.”

The high court observed that “the statement of Bina Ramani clearly shows that she had herself seen Siddharth Vashisht shooting Jessica Lal as otherwise she had no reason to ask him (the man accompanying Munshi) why he had shot her.”

The bench took note of Judge Bhayana’s ruling that since Ramani was not an eyewitness she could not further the prosecution case. The trial court had said that Ramani’s statement was ‘vague’. It also held that mere ‘feelings’ were not enough to prove a case and did not mean that Sharma had “actually fired a shot at Jessica Lall”.

The bench, however, said the interpretation was a “complete misreading of the evidence”.

Overruling the determination that Ramani was not an eyewitness, the high court said the trial court appeared to have taken this view on a ‘concession’ made by the public prosecutor, who put forth the argument that “it was Ramani’s feeling that Manu Sharma might have shot at Jessica Lall”.

For her part, Ramani also admitted that she wasn’t an eyewitness. But the high court said that instead of reading Ramani’s statement itself, the trial court proceeded to wrongly record the prosecutor’s acceptance.

“If the evidence was read properly, the trial court could not have held that she had admitted to not seeing Sharma fire at Jessica Lal.”