Review board approves Manu Sharma’s release after 21 years

NEW DELHI: Manu Sharma, serving a life term after being convicted of the murder of model Jessica Lal in 1999, may soon be a free man if Delhi’s lieutenant governor Anil Baijal accepts a recommendation for his early release by the Sentence Review Board (SRB), multiple government officials aware of the matter said.

The seven-member SRB met on Monday to decide on the release of 34 convicts, including Sharma, eligible for early release. The board’s recommendation has been sent to Baijal, said the officials.

Siddharth Vashishta,43, better known by his alias Manu Sharma, shot dead model Jessica Lal, who was tending an unlicensed bar at a private party on

April 30, 1999, after she refused to serve him a drink past midnight.

Any convict — barring one found guilty of heinous crimes — who has completed 14 years in prison without remission is eligible for early release.

Prison officials said Sharma’s work inside the prison helped his case for release. Responding to the board’s decision, Lal’s sister Sabrina Lal said she had forgiven Sharma.