Convict in the Jessica Lal murder case Siddhartha Vashishta alias Manu Sharma has moved the Delhi High Court seeking premature release.
The plea came in the wake of the High Court’s December 2018 decision to release former Youth Congress leader Sushil Kumar Sharma, who had served over 23 years in prison for the murder of his wife Naina Sahni in 1995, infamously known as the tandoor murder case.
Manu Sharma said in his petition that he had served 15 years in jail without remission, and over 20 years with remission, and therefore, he was eligible for grant of premature release.
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Sharma has sought setting aside of the October 4, 2018, Sentence Review Board (SRB) recommendation rejecting his plea, as well as the December 7, 2018, order of the Delhi government, upholding the Board’s view.
Manu Sharma, son of former Union minister Venod Sharma, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the high court in December, 2006 for killing Lal.
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.
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Fact check
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 April 30, 1999.