Jessica Lall Killer’s Parole Extended to Re-Establish Social Ties

Manu Sharma has been given parole six times since September 2009.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted 18-day parole to Manu Sharma, who is undergoing a life term for killing model Jessica Lall in 1999, to pursue his LLB course and get his marriage registered.

Justice AK Pathak allowed Sharma to remain on parole till 31 January, after he told the court that he has to attend his ‘personal contact programme’ in connection with the LLB course he is pursuing and re-establish social ties.

"Keeping in view that the petitioner (Sharma) has been granted parole by this court earlier also, the court is inclined to give him the relief till 31 January," the court said.

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Sharma had moved the High Court through his counsel Amit Sahni, seeking a directive to the Delhi government to accept his plea for extension of parole by one month.

The Delhi government on 27 December last year had granted two weeks’ parole to Sharma to enable him appear for his LLB second semester exams from 31 December 2016 onwards. His parole ends on 12 January.

The convict had told the court that he be granted parole for a month as he has to appear before the Registrar in Chandigarh on 19 January for registration of his marriage, and to attend his personal contact programme for the LLB course and re-establish social ties.

The convict, who has been granted parole six times since September 2009, has completed a post-graduate diploma in Human Rights and is now pursuing a Bachelor’s in Law course from Annamalai University in Tamil Nadu.

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Sharma, son of former Union Minister Venod Sharma, was awarded life imprisonment by the High Court in December 2006 for killing Jessica Lall in 1999. The trial court had acquitted him, but the Delhi High Court had reversed the order and the Supreme Court had upheld the life sentence in April 2010.

Lall was shot dead by Sharma after she had refused to serve him liquor at the Tamarind Court restaurant owned by socialite Bina Ramani in South Delhi's Mehrauli on the night of 30 April 1999.