Manu Sharma, convicted in the murder case of model Jessica Lal in 1999, was released on Monday. He was let off from the Tihar jail yesterday on grounds of "good behavior" after 14 years of imprisonment.
The Delhi government's sentence review board had recommended the premature release of Manu Sharma, who was serving a life sentence for the murder of model Jessica Lal in a city restaurant in 1999. The board's recommendations were approved by L-G Anil Baijal.
Baijal also remitted the un-expired portion of the sentence of at least 18 other life convicts on the recommendations submitted by the board in its meeting held on May 11, 2020. The board comprised of Delhi Home Minister, DG Prisons, Principal Secretary (Home), Principal Secretary (Law), Joint CP (Crime), Chief Probation officer (Delhi government) and district judge.
Since the last two years, Sharma was at an open-jail. He used to leave the prison complex every day and return in the evening. However, he could not leave the city or spend time at any place apart from his workplace mentioned in the open jail transfer order.
Siddhartha Vashishta, better known as Manu Sharma, son of former Union Minister Venod Sharma, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court in December 2006 for killing Lal in 1999. A trial court had acquitted him but the high court reversed the order and the Supreme Court later upheld his life sentence in April 2010.
Jessica 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 on the night of April 30, 1999.
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