Manu Sharma
Encyclopedia
Siddharth Vashisht better known as Manu Sharma, is a convicted murderer, serving life imprisonment
for the 1999 murder of model Jessica Lal
. Sharma is the son of the former Indian minister Venod Sharma
.
Manu Sharma is one of several high-profile criminals brought to trial in India through media activism. Along with that of some other murderers, his conviction is viewed as demonstrating the impact of the general public in correcting imbalances in the Indian legal process.
in the 1990s, elected on an Indian National Congress
ticket. He was later elected to the Haryana legislature. His uncle is the son-in-law of former President of India
, Shankar Dayal Sharma
. The family owns two sugar mills, at Indri
in Haryana
, and Patran in Punjab
.
Sharma suffers from asthma
and for this reason was favoured during his childhood. He was educated at the elite Mayo College
in Ajmer
. He then completed two years of undergraduate courses in Commerce at a college in Chandigarh
. Manu initially thought of completing an MBA, but he joined the family business instead. His father then directed him to manage the family mill at Bhadson in Karnal
.
Since the late 1990s, Sharma also built up the Piccadilly hotel chain including the Blue Ice pub-cum-discothèque in Chandigarh
(opened in 2002), and a theatre.
. On 29 April 1999, he was present at a party where an unlicensed bar was operating. Jessica Lal refused to serve him, despite being offered 1000 rupees, and Sharma then fired a .22 pistol and killed her. Sharma was arrested and charged with murder, destruction of evidence and other offences. During the trial, 32 witnesses turned "hostile". Seven years after the case was opened, on 21 February 2006, Sharma and eight others of the twelve accused were acquitted. The trial judge commented after the outcome that
After his acquittal by the trial court, Sharma was ostracized, with SMS campaigns being sent out to boycott all establishments that the Sharmas had owned. The acquittal led to widespread public outcry. In March 2006, the case was re-admitted in the Delhi High Court
where it was tried on a fast-track basis. Among the evidence re-introduced were two spent cartridges recovered from Sharma's car, the ballistic analysis for one of which showed it as matching the bullet recovered from Lal's skull. This evidence had been overlooked by the trial court. On 18 December 2006, The High Court ruled Manu Sharma guilty of murdering Jessica Lal and sentenced him to life imprisonment. After conviction, Manu was imprisoned in the Tihar Jail
. Sharma appealed to the Supreme Court of India
through his counsel Ram Jethmalani
. However, the Court upheld his sentence of life imprisonment on April 19 2010.
and Amardeep Singh Gill, who had been sentenced for destroying evidence. Along with another high-profile convict, Santosh Kumar Singh, Sharma is involved in helping other prisoners draft legal appeals.
On September 24, 2009 Delhi Lieutenant Governor granted Manu Sharma 30-day parole from jail, on the grounds that Sharma needed to attend to his ailing mother, attend the last rites of his grandmother and also look after the family business which was suffering in his absence. But, the basis for the parole was proved unfounded as Sharma's grandmother had already died in 2008. During the second extension of the parole for another 30 days, Sharma was seen partying in a discotheque in Delhi. His mother, whose illness was also the basis for the parole, was seen at a media briefing promoting a ladies cricket tournament at his family-run hotel in Chandigarh.
In November 2009, Chief Minister Sheila Dixit came under criticism for granting parole to Manu Sharma after media reports of him visiting night clubs in Delhi emerged. During the parole he got involved in a brawl with son of police commissioner of Delhi. After a public uproar that he violated parole norms, the Delhi Government had to cancel his parole and on 10 November 2009 Manu returned to Tihar Jail after violation of his parole was confirmed.
While imprisoned Sharma established the Siddhartha Vashishta Charitable Trust, which is managed by his mother and brother. According to The Times of India
, the trust is intended to assist causes such as" child education, cancer awareness, [and] rehabilitation of prisoners etc." By July 2011 it had provided assistance to at least 130 children of prison inmates.
Sharma was granted five days' parole in November 2011 in order to attend the marriage of his younger brother. The parole restricted his movements to the cities of Karnal, Chandigarh and Ambala and prevented him from visiting any night club.
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
for the 1999 murder of model Jessica Lal
Jessica Lal
Jessica Lal was a model in New Delhi, who was working as a celebrity barmaid at a crowded socialite party when she was shot dead on 29 April 1999. Dozens of witnesses pointed to Siddharth Vashisht, a.k.a...
. Sharma is the son of the former Indian minister Venod Sharma
Venod Sharma
Venod Sharma was a leader of Indian National Congress party from Haryana. He was a Minister of State in the Ministry of Civil Supplies, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution at in the Narasimha Rao cabinet ....
.
Manu Sharma is one of several high-profile criminals brought to trial in India through media activism. Along with that of some other murderers, his conviction is viewed as demonstrating the impact of the general public in correcting imbalances in the Indian legal process.
Personal life
Manu Sharma was born in 1977 to Venod Sharma and Shakti Rani Sharma. His father was a member of parliament in the Rajya SabhaRajya Sabha
The Rajya Sabha or Council of States is the upper house of the Parliament of India. Rajya means "state," and Sabha means "assembly hall" in Sanskrit. Membership is limited to 250 members, 12 of whom are chosen by the President of India for their expertise in specific fields of art, literature,...
in the 1990s, elected on an Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
ticket. He was later elected to the Haryana legislature. His uncle is the son-in-law of former President of India
President of India
The President of India is the head of state and first citizen of India, as well as the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces. President of India is also the formal head of all the three branches of Indian Democracy - Legislature, Executive and Judiciary...
, Shankar Dayal Sharma
Shankar Dayal Sharma
Shankar Dayal Sharma was the ninth President of India serving from 1992 to 1997. Prior to his presidency, Dr Sharma had been the eighth Vice President of India, serving under President Ramaswamy Venkataraman...
. The family owns two sugar mills, at Indri
Indri, India
Indri is a city and a municipal committee in Karnal district in the Indian state of Haryana.-Demographics: India census, Indri had a population of 14,515. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Indri has an average literacy rate of 63%, higher than the national average of 59.5%:...
in Haryana
Haryana
Haryana is a state in India. Historically, it has been a part of the Kuru region in North India. The name Haryana is found mentioned in the 12th century AD by the apabhramsha writer Vibudh Shridhar . It is bordered by Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to the north, and by Rajasthan to the west and south...
, and Patran in Punjab
Punjab (India)
Punjab ) is a state in the northwest of the Republic of India, forming part of the larger Punjab region. The state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the east, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest as well as the Pakistani province of Punjab to the...
.
Sharma suffers from asthma
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
and for this reason was favoured during his childhood. He was educated at the elite Mayo College
Mayo College
Mayo College is a public school founded by the 6th Earl of Mayo, who was Viceroy of India from 1869 to 1872.The school is located in Ajmer, in the state of Rajasthan, India....
in Ajmer
Ajmer
Ajmer , formerly written as Ajmere, is a city in Ajmer District in Rajasthan state in India. Ajmer has a population of around 800,000 , and is located west of the Rajasthan state capital Jaipur, 200 km from Jodhpur, 274 km from Udaipur, 439 km from Jaisalmer, and 391 km from...
. He then completed two years of undergraduate courses in Commerce at a college in Chandigarh
Chandigarh
Chandigarh is a union territory of India that serves as the capital of two states, Haryana and Punjab. The name Chandigarh translates as "The Fort of Chandi". The name is from an ancient temple called Chandi Mandir, devoted to the Hindu goddess Chandi, in the city...
. Manu initially thought of completing an MBA, but he joined the family business instead. His father then directed him to manage the family mill at Bhadson in Karnal
Karnal
Karnal is an important city and the headquarters of Karnal District in the Indian state of Haryana.Karnal is said to have been founded by the Kauravas in the Mahabharata era for the king Karna, a mythological hero and a key figure in the epic tale...
.
Since the late 1990s, Sharma also built up the Piccadilly hotel chain including the Blue Ice pub-cum-discothèque in Chandigarh
Chandigarh
Chandigarh is a union territory of India that serves as the capital of two states, Haryana and Punjab. The name Chandigarh translates as "The Fort of Chandi". The name is from an ancient temple called Chandi Mandir, devoted to the Hindu goddess Chandi, in the city...
(opened in 2002), and a theatre.
Murder and conviction
In the late 1990s, Manu Sharma was known to be a regular party-goer in DelhiDelhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
. On 29 April 1999, he was present at a party where an unlicensed bar was operating. Jessica Lal refused to serve him, despite being offered 1000 rupees, and Sharma then fired a .22 pistol and killed her. Sharma was arrested and charged with murder, destruction of evidence and other offences. During the trial, 32 witnesses turned "hostile". Seven years after the case was opened, on 21 February 2006, Sharma and eight others of the twelve accused were acquitted. The trial judge commented after the outcome that
After his acquittal by the trial court, Sharma was ostracized, with SMS campaigns being sent out to boycott all establishments that the Sharmas had owned. The acquittal led to widespread public outcry. In March 2006, the case was re-admitted in the Delhi High Court
Delhi High Court
The High Court of Delhi was established on 31 October 1966. The High Court of Delhi was established with four judges. They were Chief Justice K. S. Hegde, Justice I. D. Dua, Justice H. R. Khanna and Justice S. K. Kapur.-History:...
where it was tried on a fast-track basis. Among the evidence re-introduced were two spent cartridges recovered from Sharma's car, the ballistic analysis for one of which showed it as matching the bullet recovered from Lal's skull. This evidence had been overlooked by the trial court. On 18 December 2006, The High Court ruled Manu Sharma guilty of murdering Jessica Lal and sentenced him to life imprisonment. After conviction, Manu was imprisoned in the Tihar Jail
Tihar Jail
Tihar Prisons , also called Tihar Jail and Tihar Ashram , is the largest complex of prisons in South Asia. It is located at Tihar village, approximately 7 km from Chanakya Puri, to the west of New Delhi, India. The surrounding area is called Hari Nagar.The prison is maintained as a...
. Sharma appealed to the Supreme Court of India
Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court of India is the highest judicial forum and final court of appeal as established by Part V, Chapter IV of the Constitution of India...
through his counsel Ram Jethmalani
Ram Jethmalani
Ram Jethmalani, : राम जेठ्मलानी,: رام جيٺملاڻي born 14 September 1923, in Shikharpur in Sindh, British India) is an Indian lawyer and politician. He has served in various posts such as Union Law Minister and Chairman of Bar Associations...
. However, the Court upheld his sentence of life imprisonment on April 19 2010.
Current status
Sharma was incarcerated in the Tihar Jail along with the co-accused Vikas YadavVikas Yadav
Vikas Yadav in Hindi विकास यादव is the son of the noted criminal-politician from Uttar Pradesh, D.P. Yadav, and his politician wife Umlesh Yadav, both of whom are currently member of the state legislative assembly in Uttar Pradesh...
and Amardeep Singh Gill, who had been sentenced for destroying evidence. Along with another high-profile convict, Santosh Kumar Singh, Sharma is involved in helping other prisoners draft legal appeals.
On September 24, 2009 Delhi Lieutenant Governor granted Manu Sharma 30-day parole from jail, on the grounds that Sharma needed to attend to his ailing mother, attend the last rites of his grandmother and also look after the family business which was suffering in his absence. But, the basis for the parole was proved unfounded as Sharma's grandmother had already died in 2008. During the second extension of the parole for another 30 days, Sharma was seen partying in a discotheque in Delhi. His mother, whose illness was also the basis for the parole, was seen at a media briefing promoting a ladies cricket tournament at his family-run hotel in Chandigarh.
In November 2009, Chief Minister Sheila Dixit came under criticism for granting parole to Manu Sharma after media reports of him visiting night clubs in Delhi emerged. During the parole he got involved in a brawl with son of police commissioner of Delhi. After a public uproar that he violated parole norms, the Delhi Government had to cancel his parole and on 10 November 2009 Manu returned to Tihar Jail after violation of his parole was confirmed.
While imprisoned Sharma established the Siddhartha Vashishta Charitable Trust, which is managed by his mother and brother. According to The Times of India
The Times of India
The Times of India is an Indian English-language daily newspaper. TOI has the largest circulation among all English-language newspaper in the world, across all formats . It is owned and managed by Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd...
, the trust is intended to assist causes such as" child education, cancer awareness, [and] rehabilitation of prisoners etc." By July 2011 it had provided assistance to at least 130 children of prison inmates.
Sharma was granted five days' parole in November 2011 in order to attend the marriage of his younger brother. The parole restricted his movements to the cities of Karnal, Chandigarh and Ambala and prevented him from visiting any night club.