India | Updated Nov 01, 2006 at 11:07am IST

Jethmalani to defend Manu Sharma

IBNLive Specials

New Delhi: After the Delhi Police contended before the Delhi High Court on Tuesday that there was sufficient circumstancial evidence to establish that prime accused Manu Sharma had killed Jessica Lall, former Union minister and senior criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani will defend Manu when the defence begins arguments in the case on Wednesday.

Jethmalani has gone on record, saying "the case is not only a big zero, but it's even below zero". He says, "What is going on is a media trial and the press is creating a hype in the case."

Jethmalani had earlier defended the Hinduja Brothers in the Bofors case and the Harshad Mehta and Ketan Parekh in the stocks scam another many other high-profile cases.

On Tuesday, Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium concluded the argument for the prosecution, saying evidence showed that Jessica's killer was fair in complexion and short in height. He was wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans on the fateful night.

Subramanium submitted before a Division Bench comprising Justice R S Sodhi and Justice P K Bhasin that besides the testimonies of socialite Bina Ramani, her husband George Mailhot and daughter Malini, the statement of hostile witness Shayan Munshi had corroborated the description about the accused.

Incidentally, it's the same Bench of the court which had sentenced Santosh Singh to death in the Priyadarshini Mattoo rape and murder case on Monday.

In his argument, the ASG claimed that it was Manu, who had attended the party, had an argument with Jessica over her refusal to serve him liquor. Even Bina Ramani had chased him till the main gate of the Qutub Colonade restaurant, following Shayan Munshi's complaint about Manu soon after the incident, the counsel added.

There were evidence that the Tata Safari car with broken glass pieces in it, which was recovered from Noida, belonged to Piccadilly Agro Industries and Manu was driving it, the counsel said. He added that Manu had also bought a .22 bore pistol from a Karnal-based gun house.

The Additional Solicitor General also said that the conduct of the accused soon after the incident had shown that they were involved in the killing as they had fled from the spot and remained absconding for next five days.

(With inputs from agencies)

(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)

Comments (0)

All comments will be published after moderation

More on IBNLive Right Now

PHOTOGALLERY

New Stills: Saif and Deepika look amazing in 'Cocktail'Bollywood Friday: Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha in 'Rowdy Rathore' Hollywood Friday: 'Snow White And The Huntsman' & moreTamil Friday: 'Manam Kothi Paravai' vs 'Thadaiyara Thaakka'

Trending Searches

#Western Ghats #Rafael Nadal #Narendra Modi #Kevin Pietersen #Liquefied natural gas #Uninor #Tobacco #BCCI #Abhishek Bachchan #Ajith Kumar #Narendra Modi #All Parties Hurriyat Conference #Nitin Gadkari #Iran #Jagan #Chandigarh #Naveen Patnaik #VK Singh #Bharat Bandh
ibn apps