New Delhi:
"I was very close to Jessica Lall...I don't want the guy who murdered her in my club," says actor Arjun Rampal, confirming that the man who killed Jessica Lall was at his nightclub, LAP, over the weekend.
Manu Sharma was sentenced to life in prison in 2006 for killing model Jessica Lall. He is now out on parole. His break from prison is being scrutinized closely after it was reported that he was seen at Rampal's Delhi club, LAP. Sharma was granted parole on the grounds that he needs to attend to his ageing mother, and his family business.
On Saturday, Sharma's mother addressed press conference in Chandigarh promoting a cricket match she helped organize. Many lawyers said this exposes Sharma's grounds for parole as flimsy.
However, Sharma's lawyer, Ram Jethmalani, points out that as a prisoner whose appeal against his sentence is pending in court, Sharma is entitled to parole. Critics retaliate that while the parole may be legal, it is offensive to see a prisoner using time off from jail to drop into a nightclub.
Rampal says that Sharma was allowed into LAP only because he was with a member of the club. According to Rampal, Sharma stayed for ten minutes at his club.
CCTV footage, handed over to the police, allegedly shows Manu Sharma at the nightclub. The Delhi police says it was alerted to Sharma's presence at the club after a fight broke out in the area. The police says Sharma was not involved in the fight.
Since Jessica Lall was shot dead in 1999, there have been repeated allegations, in court and outside, that Manu Sharma has benefited in the case from his father's political influence. Venod Sharma, a senior Congress leader from Haryana, just won his seat in the Haryana Assembly with a gigantic majority.