Jessica murder case verdict on Monday

NEW DELHI: The judgement day in Jessica Lall murder case appeal is here. On Monday — exactly nine months and 27 days after a trial court acquitted Manu Sharma and eight others — Delhi High Court is scheduled to pronounce its verdict on the acquittals which fuelled a public outcry.
A bench consisting Justices R S Sodhi and P K Bhasin held 25 hearings almost on a day-to-day basis before wrapping up the appeal proceedings on November 29.While reserving their verdict, the judges had declined the prosecution’s long-pending application to "take further evidence" in the case.
The appeal proceedings in the high court saw some interesting twists with the bench pulling up the prosecution for browbeating socialite and key witness Bina Ramani while dubbing her as their best bet, and defence counsel Ram Jethmalani floating a theory that it was a tall Sikh and not Manu who killed Jessica.
The testimony of Bina Ramani and her daughter, Malini, and husband, George Mailhot, formed the foundation of the prosecution's plea in HC.
It had claimed before the court that Bina saw Jessica falling down after being shot and ran into Manu while he escaped on April 29, 1999 from her Qutub Colonnade restaurant in Mehrauli.
While arguing before the bench, the prosecution and the defence crossed swords over the motive behind the murder. Additional solicitor general Gopal Subramanium, who appeared on behalf of Delhi Police, reiterated the stand taken before the trial court that Manu killed Jessica when she refused him a drink.
Manu's counsel, Jethmalani, claimed denial of drink was not the motive for her murder. The provocation was her challenge to the manhood of the anonymous killer, he said.
While the high court was hearing the appeal, Delhi Police told a trial court hearing a forgery case against Bina Ramani that she was a suspect in the Jessica murder case as she allegedly destroyed evidence at the murder spot by getting Jessica's bloodstains cleaned from the spot.
Till then, Bina enjoyed the status of just a witness in the murder. Bina was arrested from Goa in September for allegedly giving forged documents related to her restaurant.
She was also sent to jail and given bail after she furnished a bond. At the fag-end of the proceedings, the high court bench had asked Manu's co-accused, Vikas Yadav and A S Gill, why charges of murder and common intention should not be slapped on them.
During the proceedings, the prosecution managed to prove that Vikas Gill, one of the persons acquitted by the trial court along with Manu and seven others, was not even in the country.
On September 26, the HC directed Delhi Police to seal the properties of Vikas Gill, an accused in the case who has been declared a proclaimed offender.
Gill left the country while the trial in the murder case was pending before a lower court, the prosecution said.