Jessica Lal murder convict Manu Sharma seeks premature release; Delhi HC asks Arvind Kejriwal govt to respond

New Delhi: Jessica Lal murder convict Manu Sharma, who has spent about 17 years in jail, has sought premature release and the Delhi High Court Friday asked the Delhi government to respond to his plea. A bench of Justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal asked the Delhi government to file its reply on the petition in which Sharma has challenged the 19 July decision of Sentence Review Board (SRB) rejecting his case for release. The court listed the matter for further hearing on 16 December. [caption id=“attachment_7586891” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Manu Sharma. ANI[/caption] Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Sharma, sought his release while relying on the high court’s judgement by which Tandoor murder case convict Sushil Sharma was granted a premature release. “The petitioner qualifies all the required parameters as stipulated in minutes of meetings of SRB. Further incarceration of the petitioner after completion of the maximum prescribed period, that is, 20 years (including remission), in absence of cogent and compelling reasons, is unlawful and without legal justification,” said the plea, filed through advocate Amit Sahni. “The recommendations dated 19 July, 2019, of SRB rejecting the case of the petitioner for pre-mature release, is contrary to law and not based on facts and is liable to be set aside,” it said. Delhi government standing counsel (criminal) Rahul Mehra said for the last three years, Sharma was in semi-open jail and now he is in open jail. He said it has been held by the Supreme Court that life imprisonment means till natural life. Sharma said in his plea SRB has rejected the plea in an arbitrary and impartial manner and even earlier also, the authorities have rejected his plea on three occasions. Sharma, son of former Union minister Venod Sharma, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by the high court in December 2006 for killing Jessica Lal in 1999. The trial court had acquitted him, but the Delhi High Court had reversed the order and the Supreme Court had upheld his life sentence in April 2010. Lal was shot dead by Manu Sharma after she had refused to serve him liquor at the Tamarind Court restaurant owned by socialite Bina Ramani at Qutub Colonnade in south Delhi’s Mehrauli area on the night of 30 April, 1999.