Meeting deferred, fate of Manu Sharma, others in line for Tihar release on hold
NEW DELHI: A meeting of the sentence review board (SRB) — to decide the release of convicts Manu Sharma and Sushil Sharma from Tihar jail — was deferred on Tuesday as home minister Satyendar Jain had a prior engagement, a government spokesperson said.
Jain also had to be present for a hearing of the enforcement directorate, in connection with a money laundering case registered against him and others.
“There is no clarity when the next meeting will be held. It will depend on the time and date given by the minister only,” the spokesperson said.
Government officials said that the meeting of the board will have to be held by the second week of May as it is mandatory for the SRB to hold meetings at least once in three months.
Manu Sharma and Sushil Sharma are among the 90 prisoners whose cases will be taken up by the board. These prisoners have either served their time in prison or are up for an early release because of “good conduct”.
Manu Sharma (real name Siddhartha Vashishta) was convicted of shooting dead model Jessica Lall at point blank range at a private party in Mehrauli in 1999 after she refused to serve him a drink after midnight. Sharma has served over 15 years in prison.
Former youth Congress president Sushil Sharma, who was convicted for killing his wife Naina Sahni in what came to be known as the infamous tandoor murder case, has been in prison for over 23 years. Sushil Sharma had shot Sahni in the head and then burnt her body in a clay oven at a central Delhi restaurant, where his friend was the manager.
Prison officials say that both have been model prisoners over the last few years. Manu Sharma, who has been in an ‘open jail’ for three months, helps inmates through his NGO. Sushil Sharma, who has been in ‘semi-open jail’ since 2016, works in the prison’s public relations office.