PTI
New Delhi, Nov 9: Injecting a new element in the Jessica Lall murder case, noted lawyer Ram Jethmalani on Wednesday claimed that it was a policeman who shot at the model in a South Delhi bar-cum-restaurant and not the prime accused Manu Sharma or co-accused Amardeep Singh Gill.
Resuming his arguments before a bench of the Delhi High Court, a day after it had rejected its plea to recuse itself from the case, he alleged that the prosecution had manufactured evidence to falsely implicate Sharma in the case.
Appearing before Justices R S Sodhi and PK Bhasin, Jethmalani said that the prosecution witness Deepak Bhojwani was planted by police to give statement against Sharma.
Countering the prosecution's argument that Sharma had introduced himself to Bhojwani during a brief conversation few hours before the incident, Jethmalani said Bhojwani was brought into the picture by the Delhi police to save its own policeman, who had really shot at Jessica on the intervening night of 28-29 April, 1999.
Till May 6, 1999 the investigating agency was not able to make up it's mind about the real culprit and were looking for some one who was present in the party hosted by Bina Ramani at Qutub Colonade and close to Jessica's family and could give a statement against Sharma, he argued.
Finally, the police had made Bhojwani as the first prosecution witness and recorded his statement after telling him to admit that he had an interaction with the prime accused who had introduced himself as Manu Sharma, he argued.
Police could have recorded the statement of Bhojwani as he was present at Ashlok and Apollo hospitals where Jessica was taken for treatment soon after the incident but police had recorded the statement after six days of the incident to hide the identity of real culprit and implicate his client.
Denying the presence of co-accused Gill in the party on the fateful night, Jethmalani said it was some other Sikh man but not Gill. Police had wrongly made him as an accused in the case.
He argued that the statement of Bhojwani that he had seen Sharma with Gill is an "improvement" as police put words into his mouth.
Shyan Munshi in his testimony had told the police that one 'sardarji' (Sikh man) in red turban was one of the invitees and known to Jessica and Bina too, Jethmalani said. Neither Munshi nor Bina took the name of Gill in their testimony if he was known to all of them, he said.
Prosecution claims that Gill along with three others including Manu Sharma had gone to attend the party. Soon after the incident Gill had helped Manu flee the place and he was also instrumental in taking Manu's Tata Safari car back from the spot.
Jethmalani also contended that the FIR in the case was not the real one and that the police had manipulated it. The investigating agency had illegally obtained the signature of Shyan Munshi on blank papers and his statement was recorded before the police was later converted into FIR, he claimed.
In reality, police had received the first call from the mobile of fashion designer Rohit Bal who was also present in the party but the prosecution deliberately did not record the first informant's complaint, Jethmalani said.
It was Bal who had referred the name of Dr Alok Chopra in Ashlok hospital to take Jessica for treatment, the counsel submitted.
According to his testimony, Bal said soon after the incident that he had met Bina, Malini and Jessica's family members. With an ulterior motive, the police had allowed him to do so, Jethmalani added.
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