Nearly seven years have elapsed since Jessica Lall was shot dead at Delhi’s Tamarind Court Bar, owned by socialite Bina Ramani. Having lost her sister, Sabrina Lall lost all hope when the accused, Manu Sharma, son of Haryana minister Venod Sharma, and eight other associates walked free, thanks to some tampering of crucial evidence, witnesses turning hostile and the police seemingly colluding to help the accused. The rich and the powerful have got away before, but this time round, the verdict generated enough outrage from the Indian middle class for a reinvestigation to be ordered and the role of senior police officers and high-profile witnesses to be examined. In a conversation with Bhavna Vij-Aurora, Sabrina, for the first time, lashes out against the dubious role played by Bina Ramani and some senior police officials. Excerpts from an interview:
Now that the police are reinvestigating the case, do you think Jessica will finally get justice?
I definitely hope something positive will come out of the whole exercise. Otherwise, what is the point? This time around, I hope the police will act impartially and the witnesses will come out with the truth and not give in to threats and pressures.
What about the depositions of the Ramanis—Bina and Malini? And also Bina’s husband, Georges Mailhot. Didn’t the case suffer because of their flip-flop?
Malini and Georges, more or less, said the same thing in court. It was Bina’s testimony which was most crucial. Her statement to the police was as good as an eyewitness account. She had said that she had seen the accused Manu Sharma put the gun in his pocket and had even asked him to hand it over to her. However, in court, she failed to clearly identify him, she said that he was "somewhat like that person". The testimonies of Malini and Bina together would have established a chain of events linking to the accused. Bina is still a crucial witness. If her testimony leads to the guilty being convicted this time, she will come out smelling of roses.
A close family friend of yours had earlier told ‘Outlook’ that Bina Ramani had tried to dissuade you from going ahead with the case soon after Jessica was declared brought dead at Apollo Hospital...
She did ask me and my family to forget about what had happened since powerful people were involved. She told us that it may be dangerous for us since we did not know who we were dealing with, and we would not achieve anything by pursuing the case.
Bina Ramani had also wanted all of you to say that she was simply hosting a private party at the Qutab Colonnade...
It is common knowledge now that it was not a private party but a weekly affair where drinks and food were served to people for a price.
So, was Jessica paid to stand in as a celebrity bartender?
Yes, of course. I think, it was Rs 1,500 per party.
What about the role of the police in the investigations?
In retrospect, I think, the collusion of the police started somewhere between Apollo Hospital, where Jessica was declared brought dead, and AIIMS, where she was taken for post-mortem. I have gone into my memory bank, and I am certain that Jessica had her clothes on when she was taken from Apollo. The police had taken her to AIIMS from there and we don’t know what happened to her clothes, which are considered crucial evidence in the investigations.
Has the police been in touch with you since the reinvestigations started?
I have met one of the persons handling the investigations, ACP M.K. Sharma, and I am in regular touch with Commissioner K.K. Paul. Interestingly, before the reinvestigation was ordered, Amod Kanth (then joint commissioner overseeing the Jessica Lall case, now DGP Arunachal Pradesh) called me for a meeting. He asked me to impress upon the commissioner that he must have three policemen in the team if there is to be a reinvestigation—Inspector Surender Sharma, then additional DCP Vivek Gogia and then DCP Sudhir Yadav—the same men who botched up the case.
His logic was continuity and that these men knew the case properly. About himself, he said, since he was in Arunachal, it would not be convenient for him to come to Delhi. But he said it could be arranged for Gogia, who is currently posted in Chandigarh, to come back to Delhi. The usually composed police officer (Amod Kanth) was brimming with nervous energy. I informed the commissioner about Amod Kanth’s request to me. At the time when investigations were on and the Central Forensic Science Laboratory report about different empties (of cartridges fired at the scene of the crime) had come, I had called Kanth to express my apprehensions. I felt that something was amiss. He told me that everything was okay, and that I had to trust somebody. I paid dearly by trusting them. I am not that naive now.
Talking of pressures, did anybody try to threaten you or your family while the investigations were on?
No, there was no pressure on us. Nobody tried to threaten us since we were not directly involved with the investigations or the trial. It is a strange thing in our country that the victim’s family has no say in the case at all. It is entirely up to the police and the prosecution. The family cannot even decide on the lawyer to fight the case. So, while the accused have a battery of the best legal brains available, the victim’s family has to make do with whoever the police chooses. This makes it more convenient for the accused, if they are powerful, to influence the police.
So, none of the accused ever tried to contact you or the family?
The only contact with our family from the side of the accused was when Manu Sharma’s parents, Venod Sharma and his wife, came to our house in December 1999, eight months after Jessica was killed. I am sure it was not a coincidence that they chose to come at a time when I was out of the city. They came to our house with a wreath for Jessica’s grave and said they were sorry for what had happened.
Coming to the witnesses, how did you react when you saw crucial witnesses turning hostile, changing their statements or doing a complete about-turn?
One by one, as witnesses suffered memory losses or lost clarity, I became a little used to it. However, the one witness whose turning hostile came as a complete shock was actor Shayan Munshi (who was present at Tamarind Court on the night of the murder). I had some inkling of what was happening when he suddenly disappeared from the radar and stopped taking calls, and became completely unapproachable. But the way it happened came as a complete shock.
He came—almost strutted—into the courtroom from the judge’s chamber, accompanied by several lawyers, and wearing an advocate’s robe. He came in and started speaking in broken accented Hindi, saying he would depose in English since he did not know Hindi. I was surprised but did not know where it was heading till he dropped the bombshell and introduced the two-gun theory. He was one of the main witnesses. Even the FIR was lodged by him. The case received a major blow when he turned hostile.
