New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to grant interim bail to Manu Sharma, undergoing life term in Tihar jail on charges of killing model Jessica Lall in April 1999.
A bench, comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justices R V Raveendran and J M Panchal, however, fixed January 22 for hearing the appeal of Manu.
Earlier, senior counsel and Manu Sharma's defence lawyer Ram Jethmalani had defended Manu before the court saying since he belonged to a respectable family and there was no chance of him running away from justice, any conditions could be imposed on him while granting bail.
The court, however, declined to grant interim bail to the convict, who is the son of Haryana Congressman Venod Sharma.
His acquittal by the trial court had led to huge public outcry. The High Court, however, reversed the acquittal order and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
In his bail plea, Manu said that after an elaborate trial and after appreciating the oral and documentary evidence, the trial court had acquitted him.
He contended that he did not get a fair trial in the high court because of the media pressure, adding that through malicious and vicious campaign the media had browbeaten the high court judges as well as his counsel preventing free and fair hearing.
Jessica, a ramp-model, had been killed on April 29, 1999 during a party at South Delhi’s Tamarind Court restaurant, in full view of hundreds of high-profile guests, including a top-ranking Delhi Police officer. Jessica was shot dead when she was tending the bar. A trial court had on February 21, 2006 acquitted all the nine accused for lack evidence.
In December the Delhi High Court sentenced Manu to life imprisonment for the murder, four years imprisonment for possession of illegal arms under the Arms Act and another four-year jail term for criminal conspiracy.
He was also slapped with a Rs-50,000 fine that would be paid to Jessica’s family.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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