New Delhi: In an incriminating piece of evidence that would help in nailing Manu Sharma as the murderer of Jessica Lall, the prime accused has said in a taped confession that he had fired the shot that had hit Lall on the intervening night of April 30, 1999.
The taped confession according to a TV channel has Sharma saying, “I pointed towards her (Jessica Lall) a little and fired the shot. So, I think I hit someone, I was just trying to see what had happened, when this lady (old lady, could be Bina Ramani) comes up there”.
Sharma, the son of Congress leader Venod Sharma, said that he reached Qutab Colonnade along with his friends Vikas Yadav, son of politician D P Yadav, and Tony Gill at around 22:15 hours on the fateful night and bought a coupon of Rs 2,400 for a bottle of whisky.
Sharma said that after he took his first drink, Malini Ramani said even if he would give her thousand bucks, she would not give a sip of wine.
“I said that we have got an arrangement there. I pulled out my pistol there”, Sharma told police.
“I fired one shot in the air… So, it went into the roof and nobody bothered, nobody moved… all chatting and chatting. Then, I pointed at Jessica and what I intended to do was I pointed slightly away from her so that I could see her hair, I wanted to generally shoot”.
On being asked about his motives, Sharma replied, “Idea was generally at that time to shoot in challenge. How embarrassing that she said that even if you give thousand bucks you will not get a sip of my drink”.
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“I pointed towards her a little and fired the shot. So I think I hit someone, I was just trying to see what had happened, when this (old) lady comes up there”.
Sharma then reveals his departure from the scene of the crime to reach his friend Tony’s house.
“I took a lift on scooter or motorcycle and I saw a little garden and sort of a dhabha and I put my pistol there. I took another hitch from a scooter and then I took a hitch from a Tata Safari and I took a hitch from a tractor and after that I reached right in front of Tony’s house,” Sharma said.
On reaching Tony’s house, where Manu meets his friends Vikas and Alok, he comes to know about Jessica’s death.
“When I inquired, they told me, “I think she is dead”. I said single gunshot, he said, “yes”. I said who is she – “Jessica Lall”. I said which hospital – they said we don’t know”, Manu is heard saying in the taped confession.
“I was slightly more scared. I said where is my car? They said we did not have the key, we could not get it. I said I need to move it, Vikas.”
“Vikas said okay, we will get the car, you stay. So, Vikas and Tony left me and then got the Safari back. I remembered all of sudden that my pistol was not with me, I did not readily recollect the place this time. Me, Vikas and Tony went and we retrieved the pistol”.
Sharma in his confessions also said that the gun he used to shoot the bullet at Jessica was an Italian made 22/.2Z pistol which he had bought three to four months before the incident took place.
The audio CD, allegedly in the possession of the police for all the last seven years, was never produced in court as evidence. The confession made in the CD was recorded a week after Jessica’s murder.
The CD has been produced to the High Court as a piece of evidence. Jessica’s sister Sabrina Lall has expressed the hope that this CD would help in “getting them justice”.
The audio confessions come close on the heels of a sting operation carried out by Tehelka, where they showed key witnesses accepting money from Venod Sharma to turn hostile.
Shyan Munshi, who had turned hostile by stating that his statement made to police was wrong since he was not all versed with Hindi, was shown in the sting video describing fine nuances between Hindi and Bengali.
“Everyone knows who killed Jessica,” Munshi told reporters of the sting operation.
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