Click to play videoNew Delhi: It is 10 years since 34-year-old model Jessica Lal was murdered in New Delhi.
It's been a test case because it's one of those cases that pitches the people's power and the media's voice against political power.
On 29th April, 1999, on a night Delhi was witness to one of the most high profile murders. A party was on at socialite Bina Ramani's restaurant Tamarind Court when 24-year-old Manu Sharma allegedly shot dead Jessica Lal, a model who was tending the bar. The reason was that Jessica refused to serve Manu Sharma a drink after the bar had shut down.
An FIR was lodged by model turned actor Shyan Munshi. He was the prime witness to the killing.
What followed was a lengthy legal battle lasting six years.
The case suffered its first jolt when prime witness Shyan Munshi turned hostile.
Then, charges of police complicity in favour of the accused came out in the open, and in 2002, Manu Sharma was granted bail.
Four years later, on February 21, 2006, a lower court aquitted Manu and others for lack of evidence.
By this time, the Jessica Lall murder case had garnered immense public support and the judgement was met with public outcry.
The High Court stepped in and after re-looking at the facts of the case, came down heavily on the lower court verdict.
In December, 2006, Manu Sharma was held guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. His accomplices, Vikas Yadav and Amardeep Gill were convicted of destruction of evidence and criminal conspiracy and sentenced to four years in prison.
Behind bars ever since, Manu Sharma had applied for interim bail in 2008 but the SC had rejected his plea, citing the henious nature of the crime.
He had been rejected bail once in 2007 as well. He then applied for parole in September 2009 on grounds of attending personal and business matters.
But instead, he was found partying at a club in Delhi, raking up yet another controversy.
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