PRESENTED BY:-Sakshi Ahuja (35)Shilpi Sharma (50)Nitin Rana (26)Pawan Bhatia (27)Rahul Kakroo (32)Alisha Sharma (123)January 5, 1965-April 29, 1999 (aged 34)

Jessica Lall, 34, was a delhi based model and an aspiring television presenter.

She was bubbly, vivacious and full of life.

Who was Jessica Lall?

Main Accused, Sidhharth VashishtAka Manu Sharma (29), Son of Haryana Former union minister (Venod Sharma) was accused Of shooting modelJessica Lall at point blank range .

In the ensuing trial over seven years, Manu Sharma and a number of others were acquitted on February 21, 2006

Following intense media and public pressure, the prosecution appealed (a rare measure) and the Delhi High Court conducted proceedings on a fast track with daily hearings over 25 days,and Manu Sharma was found guilty of having murdered Jessica Lall. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on December 20, 2006.

CONTENT

Background Chronology of dates Initial trials Acquittal by lower

court Sad struggling phase Role of Media Role of Public Appeal and

conviction in HC Judgement conclusion

Prominent socialite Bina Ramani, was the owner of Tamarind Court Café, the restaurant at which this murder took place.

The event was meant to be a farewell party for her (second) husband, Canadian Georges Mailhot, who was travelling abroad.

A prime fact related to the circumstances was that Ramani’s restaurant did not have a license to serve liquor.While Ramani protests the license was on its way.

Jessica was working as a celebrity barmaid at the Tamarind Court Cafe, in the posh Qutub area of South Delhi when she was shot dead on April 30.

Along with her , other models who were serving drinks were ….

Malini Ramani(daughter of bina ramani) Shayan Munshi…and many more

Manu sharma accompanied by Colleagues. Alok Khanna,Amar deep Singh(Tony),Vikas Yadav,

The four had a few drinks and reached Tamarind Court in Qutub Colonnade, at 11.15 p.m. Manu Sharma had already attended one of the special Thursday nights.

VIKAS YADAV

AMAR DEEP SINGH

General manager of the Coca-Cola bottling unit in Delhi

Son of Rajya Sabha member, D.P. Yadav, a politician from Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh

"..I won't give you a sip even if you give

me a thousand bucks!"

– Jessica Lall to Manu Sharma,

before she was shot .

(overheard by Malini Ramani) Malini Ramani

Sharma fled from the restaurant with his friends. (Alok Khanna, Amardeep Singh Gill (Tony), and Vikas Yadav.)

Manu Sharma called Amit Jhingan,asked Amit to dig out the weapon & Manu Sharma spent the night at Vikas Yadav’s Ghaziabad residence .

May 4, 1999: Co-accused, Tony and Ashok Khanna, arrested. They, along with Vikas Yadav, had allegedly gone with Sharma that night, and helped him flee.

May 6,1999: Manu Sharma arrested in Chandigarh

May 8, 1999: Amit Jhingan, friend of Sharma, arrested for allegedly getting bloodstains cleaned up from murder-scene.

May 8, 1999: Bina Ramani, husband Georges Mailhot, and daughter Malini arrested, and later bailed out, under the Excise Act, for serving liquor without a license

May 10, 1999: Rajya Sabha MP D P Yadav, father of the absconding Vikas Yadav, interrogated by the Delhi police

May 10, 1999: Joint Commissioner of Police who was at the restaurant on April 30, was relieved from his post. Earlier, he claimed to have been unaware of the bar being run without a licence.

May 14, 1999: Accused Shyam Sunder Sharma, relative of former President Shanker Dayal Sharma, released on bail.

May 19, 1999:Vikas Yadav walked into the Delhi police headquarters and surrendered, but only hours later he walked out, as he carried anticipatory bail papers from Imphal Court

“Manu (the main accused) came to my house and wanted to spend the night there. I only allowed him to stay not

knowing what had happened

On 3rd August 1999: Delhi Police filed the charge sheet in the court of Metropolitan magistrate where in Manu Sharma was named the main accused and charge under-

section 302-Murder

Section 201-Destruction of Evidence

Section 120(b)-Criminal conspiracy

Section 212-Harboring Suspects

Section 27,54 & 59 – Arms Act

Other accused, like Vikas Yadav, Alok Khanna and Amardeep Singh Gill were charged for destroying evidence of the case and conspiracy.

Shyam Sunder Sharma, Amit Jhingan, Yograj Singh, Harvinder Chopra, Vikas Gill , Raja Chopra, Ravinder Krishan Sudan and Dhanraj,were all charged variously under sections

120(b), 302, 201 212 ,of the IPC (for giving shelter to the accused and destroying evidence)

The Jessica Lall murder case went up for trial in August 1999, Manu charged with murder and his friends charged with related crimes such as destroying evidence and sheltering criminal suspects .

Four of the witnesses who had initially said they had seen the murder happen eventually turned hostile.

Shayan Munshi Karan Rajput Shivdas Yadav Parikshit Sagar

Shayan munshi

Acquittal BY LOWER COURT

After extensive hearings with nearly a hundred witnesses, a Delhi trial court headed by Additional Sessions Judge S. L. Bhayana, acquitted 9 accused in Jessica Lall Murder case,

The police failed to recover the weapon .

According to police two cartridges were found, emptied shells of which were recovered from the spot, were fired from one weapon.

All three eyewitnesses listed by the police in its charge sheet,turned hostile during the trial

The police also failed to establish a complete chain of the circumstances leading to the incident and trace the murder weapon which according to it, was used in the crime

The judgment faulted the police for deciding on the accused first and then collecting evidence against him, instead of letting the evidence lead them to the murderer Manu sharma with the other accused were finally released

After the acquittal of all the accuseds,Sabrina and her father had all but given up hope of justice ever being served in the seven year-old murder and during this period sabrina lost her parent.

But as more and more people voiced their concern, the massive public outcry forced the police to re-open the case, they are once again hopeful that the accused will be brought to justice

“It’s a terrible feeling that you could’nt do anything to the people who murdered your sister. we tried our best but probably even the best wasn’t good enough”-sabrina

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

TEXT MESSAGES

NWSPERS

MEDIA

CHANNELS

Protest also started in manu’s home town,Chandigarh.

hundreds of students, mnc executives along with retired IAS and Army officers participated in the protest

The police have also launched an inquiry against the possibly deliberate ineptitude of their own earlier investigation

hundreds of thousands of people e-mailed and SMS-ed their outrage on petitions forwarded by media channels and newspapers to the President

March 2006 Justice not done in Jessica case: Sheila Dikshit . Kalam promised necessary action in Jessica Lal case. Delhi police filed appeal in Jessica case. Bailable warrants issued against all accused. Jessica case: HC refused witness plea.

April 2006 Cops examined Sabrina statement. Access allowed to Manu Sharma's 1999 interrogation. Manu Sharma granted bail and eight others and restraining

them from leaving the country. Police to furnished case diary, status report.

May–June 2006

• Jessica Lal case: Cop transferred• Delhi police submits synopsis of status report to HC• Shayan Munshi held, gets bail• Shayan Munshi interrogated in Jessica Lal case• Jessica case: Court unhappy with Delhi cops

September 2006 • Warrant against Bina Ramani • Socialite Bina Ramani arrested • Dr J S Bedi gets bail• Bina Ramani in judicial custody until Sept 27• Bina Ramani granted bail• Bina Ramani released from Tihar jail

On September 9 2006, a sting operation by the news magazine Tehelka was shown on the TV channel Star News.

Tehalka explained how the witnesses had been bribed and coerced into retracting their initial testimony.

Venod Sharma was named in the expose as paying millions of rupees to some of the witnesses.

Facing pressure from the central Congress leaders, Venod Sharma resigned from the Haryana cabinet(election matter)

December 18

Manu Sharma was awarded life imprisonment. The other accused, Vikas Yadav and AmarDeep Singh Gill, were awarded four years of imprisonment for destroying evidence

Manu Sharma's lawyer, R K Naseem said the decision would be appealed in Supreme Court, because the judgement was wrong in holding Bina Ramani to have been an eyewitness

Same Day(18 dec) It was dal, roti for Manu Sharma in jail. Court lauds Bina Ramani's courage. It is a victory for all of us: Sabrina Lall.

According to a widely circulated media report, Manu Sharma told a friend after the trial in Hindi:

mere bhaagya main yehi thaa. taqdeer kaa faislaa yehi thaa (Such was my fate. This was decided by destiny).

Depending upon the values and upbringing of a person there will always exist a relativity in the perspective of 2 or more people.

Ethical behavior : Experiences of the individual and group

The relativist or significant others are the basis for defining ethical standards

such beliefs may change over time (i.e., advertising in the accounting profession)

The individual social responsibility includes the engagement of each person towards the community where he lives, which can be expressed as an interest towards what’s happening in the community, as well as in the active participation in the solving of some of the local problems.

It is further about an individual becoming responsible in his/her actions that have affect on communities outside his/her immediate circle.

“it wasn’t the fault of the judiciary system, other factors such as the time taken (7 yrs), weak case of prosecution, hostile witnesses, lack of evidence or you can say manipulation of evidences were the actual reason behind this verdict.”“in India anything can be bought. Its sickens me how already such rich people would lie and twist there statements. And for what? To add more money in there bank account.” It was evident that people were not lacking the sense of social responsibility. What was lacking was the spirit to stand up and fight. Finally patience did run out, and people had enough.

Expressing dismay over the acquittal of nine accused of murdering model Jessica Lall, her family members said ,’the court judgement hardly came as a surprise to them. "We had given up hope of getting justice some time back," Sabrina, Jessica's sister, said soon after Additional Sessions Judge S L Bhayana acquitted the nine accused in New Delhi as the Delhi Police failed to prove charges against Manu Sharma and eight others.

"The judgement has come as a closure of something that was going on for the past seven years. The way this case was progressing, we had given up all hope of getting justice," an emotionally choked Sabrina said.

Patiala House Court Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) S L Bhayana, in his order said, ''the prosecution did not collect enough evidence and eyewitness to prove its case and a complete chain of evidence was missing, which indeed weakens the side of prosecution.'' Mr Bhayana also said in his order that the evidence which was put forward by key eyewitness Shayan Munshi, who was present at the time of incident had been corroborated by the report of Center for Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL).

''The police also failed to recover any weapon which has been used by the accused. Had the pistol been recovered, it could have linked him with the commission of crime,'' he added.

And last but not the least, the lack of social responsibility is evident by Ram jethmalani’s statement “I do not care what people say about me or how much they criticize me , I will fight the case like a responsible advocate”