HC: Decide Manu’s parole plea in week

New Delhi, November 25

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The Delhi High Court today directed the jail authorities to decide within a week the plea of Jessica Lal murder convict Manu Sharma, who has spent around 17 years in jail, seeking eight weeks parole to look after family needs.

Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar was informed by the counsel for Sharma that his plea seeking parole had been pending with the authorities for nearly nine months whereas they were required to decide it within four weeks.

“The jail authorities are directed to dispose of the parole plea of the petitioner (Sharma) within a week,” the court said.

Senior advocate Pradeep Nandrajog and lawyer Amit Sahni, appearing for Sharma, submitted that he be released on parole for eight weeks for continuity of social ties and to look after family ties.

They said the plea was pending before the jail authorities for nearly nine months and he was challenging the inordinate delay.

Standing counsel for Delhi Government Rahul Mehra said Sharma should first wait for the decision of jail authorities on his plea and thereafter approach the high court, if required.

He said Sharma was already in an open jail, which meant he worked outside the jail boundaries from morning to sunset. To this, the judge said: “But he can’t be roaming around during this period.”

Lal was shot dead by Manu Sharma after she had refused to serve him liquor at Tamarind Court restaurant owned by socialite Bina Ramani at Qutub Colonnade in south Delhi’s Mehrauli area on the night of April 30, 1999. 

Manu is the son of a politician, Venod Sharma. 

A trial court had acquitted the accused, creating uproar across the country. 

Later, the case was re-opened by the High Court following which his crime was established and he was finally punished with a sentence of life imprisonment and a fine — PTI