Life term for Indian model killer

The son of a governing Congress party politician in India who murdered a model in 1999 has been sentenced to life imprisonment. Manu Sharma, son of former federal minister Venod Sharma, was convicted of shooting Jessica Lal dead in Delhi.

The case was reopened after he and eight others were acquitted in February, prompting a public outcry.

Campaigners say media pressure over the case has encouraged the courts to take on India's rich and powerful. The Delhi High Court also asked Sharma to pay 50,000 rupees ($1100) to Jessica Lal's family.

Two of his friends, Vikas Yadav, son of another politician, and Amardeep Singh Gill, a manager with a leading cola company, have been sent to prison for four years for destruction of evidence in the case.

"I am really happy with the judgement. I really could not ask for more," the murdered model's sister, Sabrina Lal, told reporters after the sentencing.

'Conspiracy'

Prosecutors said Manu Sharma fired at Jessica Lal after she refused to serve him a drink at a fashionable restaurant in the capital where she was working as a waitress.Several eyewitnesses came forward to the police, but by the time the case came to trial seven years later key eyewitnesses had retracted their statements.

The trial finally collapsed in February 2006 when the lower court judge said the prosecution's case contained loopholes and there was insufficient evidence to convict.

The acquittals sparked public outrage, with protest rallies and a sustained media campaign launched to demand justice for Jessica Lal, who was 34 when she was killed. Police appealed against the acquittals and opened an investigation into allegations that there had been a conspiracy to pervert justice.

Several witnesses and police officials involved in the case were questioned.

Pressure

Campaigners said it had been the latest in a long line of cases where members of India's elite had been able to manipulate the law and get away with murder.

But the pressure mounted over the Jessica Lal case is seen as a turning point in efforts to bring the rich to justice. Observers say the sustained media campaigns and public protests resulted in other cases being reopened and convictions secured. In October, the son of a former senior policeman was convicted of raping and murdering Delhi student Priyardishini Mattoo in 1996.

Earlier this month, former Indian cricketer Navjot Sidhu was sentenced to three years in prison for manslaughter after beating a man in a dispute over a parking space. His acquittal, too, was overturned on appeal.

Courtesy: BBC News