Jessica Lall was a model in New Delhi, who was working as a celebrity barmaid at a crowded socialite party when she was shot dead on April 29, 1999. Dozens of witnesses pointed to Siddharth Vashisht, a.k.a. Manu Sharma, the son of Venod Sharma, a wealthy Congress politician in Haryana, as the murderer.
During the summer of 1999, leading socialite Bina Ramani had been organizing “Thursday Special” nights, at her newly opened “Tamarind Court” restaurant, at Qutub Colonnade, a refurbished haveli overlooking the Qutub Minar in Mehrauli.
On April 29, 1999, it was the seventh and last Thursday Special of the season; also being celebrated was the foreign visit of Bina Ramani's Canadian husband Georges Mailhot, for a period of six months. Though the restaurant was yet to receive its liquor license, drinks could be bought through discreetly marked ‘QC' coupons, and on that night, several models and friends were serving drinks at the 'Once Upon A Time' bar, including Jessica Lall, Bina Ramani's daughter Malini Ramani, friends Shayan Munshi, and others.
As it was a busy night, the drinks were soon over, at about 2 a.m. Manu Sharma asked for a drink, which Jessica refused; he then tried to offer a thousand rupees, which she refused as well. Though there are many versions of what happened next, sometime soon, the inebriated and enraged Manu Sharma shot at Jessica twice at point blank range, the first bullet hitting the ceiling. The second one proved fatal, as it hit Jessica, who was now kneeling over, on the temple and she fell unconscious immediately. Twenty minutes later, she was rushed to the Aashlok Hospital (in Safdurjung Enclave) in a car, and later succumbed to her injuries that same night at the Apollo Hospital.
The Jessica Lall murder case went up for trial in August 1999, with Manu charged with murder and his friends charged with related crimes such as destroying evidence and sheltering criminal suspects.
Four of the witnesses who had initially said they had seen the murder happen eventually turned hostile. Shayan Munshi, a model and friend who was serving drinks beside Jessica Lall, changed his story completely; as for earlier testimony recorded with the police, he said that the writing was in Hindi, a language he was not familiar with, and it should be repudiated. Karan Rajput and Shivdas Yadav also had not seen anything, while Parikshit Sagar said he had left the place before the incident. In a conversation with the sister of Jessica, Karan Rajput is alleged to have played a tape-recording discussing with some friends how Venod Sharma's people had "won over" several witnesses already.
Also, it appears that the cartridges used in the murder were altered. Although the gun was never recovered, these cartridges were for some reason sent for forensic evaluation, where it turned out that they had been fired from different weapons. This led to a further weakening of the prosecution case.
In the ensuing trial over seven years, Manu Sharma and a number of others were acquitted on February 21, 2006.
Following intense media and public pressure, the prosecution appealed (a rare measure) and the Delhi High Court conducted proceedings on a fast track with daily hearings over 25 days. The lower court judgment was found faulty in law, and Manu Sharma was found guilty of having murdered Jessica Lall. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on December 20, 2006.
