Manu Sharma moves HC over premature release
RELIEF SOUGHT Plea says Sentence Review Board twice rejected Sharma’s request ‘without considering merit’
NEW DELHI: Manu Sharma, who has served over 20 years in Tihar jail for killing model Jessica Lal, has moved the Delhi High Court challenging the Sentence Review Board’s (SRB’S) rejection of his plea for premature release.
As per rules, an inmate can apply for premature release after serving 14 years and later again after 20 years. Each time, the SRB reviews the application, confirms with several authorities and takes into account the prisoner’s conduct, before giving its recommendation.
According to Sharma’s counsel, his name was first sent to the SRB in September 2017. However, the board rejected his case “despite extraordinary conduct”.
On February 20, 2018, Sharma completed 20 years following which he once again filed an application for premature release. After much deliberation, the SRB in December of that year, rejected his plea.
Moving the high court, Sharma referred to the recent release of Sushil Sharma (convicted for killing his wife in the infamous tandoor murder case) and pointed to the court’s observation that a convict could challenge the order of the state if he or she is not satisfied with it. Having served 23 years in jail and his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment, Sushil Sharma had successfully challenged the SRB rejection of his premature release in the high court.
Manu Sharma, in his plea filed through advocate Amit Sahni, contended that his request was rejected even though all reports given by various authorities rec- ommended his premature release.
The petition said that on July 27, 2018, the SRB had deferred the decision on Sharma’s premature release to October after it could not reach a consensus.
In the October meeting, the plea stated, the social welfare department and the chief probation officer had recommended Manu Sharma’s premature release. It, however, added that the principal secretary (law & justice), principal secretary (home) and special commissioner of police (crime) did not support the recommendation without assigning any “cogent reason”.
“Be that as it may, even the three members of the board, who opposed the release, did so without considering the merits of the case..,” the plea read. The case is likely to be heard by Justice Najmi Waziri on Monday. In April 1999 Jessica Lal was found shot dead at the Tamarind Court at Qutub Colonnade in south Delhi’s Mehrauli. Siddhartha Vashishta, also known as Manu Sharma, son of former union minister Venod Sharma, was accused in the murder case.
A trial court acquitted Manu Sharma on the ground that the Delhi Police had failed to sustain the grounds on which they had built their case.
In December 2006, however, Delhi High Court convicted him and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
In April 2010, Supreme Court confirmed life sentence. On October 4, 2018 his plea for premature release rejected by Sentence Review Board