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High Court slams police report in Jessica Lall case

The Delhi HC came down heavily on the city police's special investigation team for a "conspiracy" to save accused Manu Sharma in the Jessica Lall murder case.

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NEW DELHI: The much-awaited report on faulty police investigations in the high-profile murder case of model Jessica Lall was termed as a “waste of time” by the Delhi High Court on Wednesday, more than a year after the Delhi police had started investigations against it own officials handling the case.

The year-long investigations that saw even the top brass of Delhi police coming under scanner, gave a clean chit to all officials, even to those present in the party where the model, who was bartending for the evening, was shot dead by Manu Sharma, son of former Haryana minister Venod Sharma.

The bench, comprising Justices RS Sodhi and HR Malhotra, observed that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) had played a dubious role and was trying to protect the erring police officials.

The bench said, “The investigation was simply a waste of time and part of a conspiracy between the accused and the police officials.”

Some of the senior officials, who were questioned by the SIT formed on March 6 last year, were YS Dadwal, special police commissioner and Amod Kanth, the present director general of Arunachal Pradesh.

The other officers who were questioned by the police were Sudhir Nath, joint commissioner, prime minister security, and Vivek Gogia, superintendent of Chandigarh police.

During the course of investigations, it was found that Dadwal was also present in the party on the night of April 29, 1999 when Manu Sharma shot Lall. The party was organised by socialite turned entrepreneur Malini Ramani at her Tamrind Court restaurant.

The police had started investigations against its own men after a public outcry was made on the acquittal of all the eight accused by a lower court.

Interestingly, even before the SIT started its investigations, the police were aware that the sleuths had conducted shoddy investigations and manipulated the evidence.

A high-level investigation carried out by KK Paul, the present police commissioner, found that all the officers involved in the Jessica Lall murder case had held dubious intentions and had not filed a proper report.

Meanwhile, happy with the observations of the court, Sabrina Lall, sister of Jessica Lall said: “These observations were expected but the court should now concentrate on punishing the erring officials. Police had botched up the probe which delayed justice,” she added.

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