Finally on 27th Feb 2006, Delhi Police Commissioner Krishna Kant Paul made a public announcement of the decision taken by the Delhi Police to challenge the verdict in the Jessica Lal murder case in High Court.In Manu Sharma’s home town Chandigardh, local folks have showed their support by not visiting any of the entertainment and dinning places owned by the Sharma family. They are urging each other via sms to boycott Manu Sharma in whatever ways they can. A common sms doing rounds is : “Hey ppl, am sure you all msgd ur views on Jessica case. Now also stop going to Blue Ice.” Blue Ice is night club owned by Manu Sharma.
Similar text messages are been circulated all around the country, some even urging Bollywood industry to ban Shayan Munshi’s films and endorsements. It is alleged that Munshi and his family were threatened; some even accuse him of accepting money in lieu of his changed testimony. Hopefully this time round, the Indian public and the media won’t give up and stand by Jessica’s family till the very end. Come to think of it, when the bloody bastards involved are put behind bars…maybe then we could some-what claim that we are living in a civilized society.
I request fellow desi-bloggers to not let this ray of hope die out. Write your feelings on this all-important issue or just show your support by linking to blog posts and articles on Jessica Lal. We have done it before, so this time round lets be Jessica and her family’s voice against culprits and the corrupted system.
Related post : Jessica Lal Case: Justice not served
UPDATE : Re-Trial
Public outcry forces fresh Jessica probe
Against the backdrop of public outrage over the handling of the Jessica Lal murder probe, the Delhi police today filed a new case of criminal conspiracy in the destruction and fabrication of evidence, and will challenge “in a day or so” the lower court order acquitting all the accused.
A special crack team was today named under Special Commissioner (Intelligence) U K Katna to investigate the case but “nobody has been named in the FIR”, Delhi Police Commissioner K K Paul told reporters here.
Admitting that a “lot of material” has come up in the aftermath of the judgement, and the media creating “lots of doubt” about the original probe, he said a new FIR was filed in the Mehrauli Police Station today under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.[Link]
Cyber world explodes in anti-Manu tirade
From the social space to cyber space, Manu Sharma has nowhere to hide. After a nation-wide revolt on the acquittal of those accused in the Jessica Lal murder case, mainly Sharma, it is now netizens who have gone ballistic against the verdict which has suddenly bound the country together in both shame and agony.
A day after residents of the city spoke about blacklisting and avoiding a restaurant, night club and cinema hall owned by Sharma, bloggers have flooded the Internet with angry messages. [Link]
Preity’s cry for Jessica!
Somebody shoots a living girl dead in the presence of fifty people, 7 years later he walks away scot free. It’s utterly shameful!’
“I think what we are witnessing today is really appalling. It’s so sad that when an actor, Salman Khan, kills a black buck in isolation in the middle of a forest, he gets sentenced to jail for a year.
But when somebody shoots a living girl dead in the presence of fifty people, seven years later he walks away scot free. It’s alarming, shocking and utterly shameful. [Link]
Delhi holds vigil seeking justice for Jessica
“We have nothing to lose…we want the culprits to be punished and that is our sole aim. We want justice for everybody,” Jessica’s sister Sabrina said.
Overwhelmed by the public support, she said her hope of getting justice in the case has been “reinforced” now. “There is hope and there has to be,” Sabrina added. [Link]
Jessica prompts CrPC change
The government is moving to tighten loopholes in dealing with hostile witnesses in the wake of a public outcry over the acquittal of all nine accused in the Jessica Lal murder case by introducing an amendment in the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) which will provide for a witness’s statement being recorded on oath. [Link]
‘Hope they won’t mess up Jessica case again’
Murdered ramp model Jessica Lal’s sister Sabrina hoped on Monday the case would not be messed up again, even as she hailed a police appeal in the Delhi High Court against the acquittal of all the nine accused. [Link]
We are being treated like accused: Bina Ramani
“We are the only three who have stood by them (the Lalls) but now they have clubbed us with the accused and witnesses who turned hostile. We haven’t had any word from the police and learnt of this notice only through our friends,”says Ramani. [Link]
Jessica’s father admitted to hospital
Murdered ramp model Jessica Lal’s father Ajit Lal, who was admitted to a private hospital here following illness, was in a stable condition Monday.
Family members said he had not been well for some time and was admitted to the Unkal Hospital at Gurgaon in Haryana Saturday after he suffered a brain haemorrhage. [Link]
The Capital’s most wanted
In an interview to the BBC after Jessica Lall’s murder made national headlines in 1999, her mother, May, had said wistfully: “Perhaps Jessica has gone to bring justice back into this society of ours. Maybe God is going to show them that no more is this going to be the case. No more just thinking that they are the law and money can buy off people.”
Seven years and five judges later, these words have an ironic ring about them. All the accused in the Jessica Lall murder case are free men and they include Haryana Excise and Taxation Minister Venod Sharma’s son, Siddharth Vashisht aka Manu Sharma, UP’s notorious gangster-politician D P Yadav’s son Vikas (now in jail because of another murder, which is pending in the courts for the past four years), India-Pakistan ODI star Yuvraj Singh’s father, Yograj Singh, and the former Coke executive who had launched the bottled water Kinley, Amardeep Singh Gill, aka Tony. [Link]
Actor Shayan Munshi granted bail
Model-turned actor Shayan Munshi, a key witness in the sensational Jessica Lall murder case, was arrested on Saturday at the Kolkata airport on his way to Bangkok but was granted bail later in the day by a district court which directed him not to leave the country.
He was arrested on the basis of a Delhi police lookout notice while trying to leave the country alongwith his family, North 24 Parganas Superintendent of Police Ranvir Kumar said.[ Link]
UPDATE : Blog Reactions
Desicritics On The Jessica Lal Murder Case
Aparna is all For Jessica Lal
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