New Delhi: Manu Sharma, undergoing life term in Tihar jail on charges of killing ramp model Jessica Lall in April 1999, on Thursday moved the Supreme Court seeking bail.
Manu's bail plea came up for hearing before Justice Arijit Pasayat, who directed that it be listed along with convict's appeal against a Delhi High Court order sentencing him to life term in jail, reversing a trial court order acquitting him of the murder charges.
The judge directed the matter to be listed before a regular bench at an early date.
Lall was shot dead on the night intervening April 29 and 30, 1999 at a party at Qutub Colonnade restaurant in south Delhi. A trial court had on February 21, 2006 acquitted all the nine accused for lack evidence.
In his plea, Manu, son of former Haryana minister and Congress leader Venod Sharma, 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.
Manu said the vicious attack reached its apogee when the alleged confessions made by the appellant in police custody were exhibited on television and published in newspapers to prejudice the mind of all concerned and the general public. He alleged that his conviction was the result of bias and media pressure.
Manu said that till the date of his acquittal, he had already undergone a jail term for three years and 10 months and after the high court judgement, he surrendered the same day.
He said he was never accused by the prosecution of breaching any term on which he was released earlier on bail by the court. He sought to be released on bail pending disposal of his appeal.
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