Manu Sharma was convicted for shooting Jessica Lal at a party after she refused to serve him a drink.
New Delhi: Jessica Lal killer Manu Sharma has been freed after his life term was remitted. He was released along with 18 other prisoners from Delhi’s Tihar Jail on Monday.
Lieutenant Governor of Delhi allowed Manu Sharma’s release on the recommendation of the Sentence Review Board. He had been out on parole as part of measures taken by prisons to prevent overcrowding in the coronavirus crisis.
Manu Sharma, the son of former union minister Vinod Sharma, was convicted in 2006 for shooting model Jessica Lal at a party after she refused to serve him a drink on April 30, 1999. He was sentenced to a life term.
In the past two years, Manu Sharma had been in an open jail on account of “good conduct”; he was allowed to leave the prison for work at 8 am and return at 6 pm. Manu Sharma, aka Sidharth Vashishta, worked with a non-profit for the rehabilitation of prisoners.
In 2018, Jessica Lal’s younger sister Sabrina Lal had said she forgave Manu Sharma and would not object if he were freed. “I truly believe he has been doing good work in jail…it’s a load off my chest and I feel at peace with myself,” Sabrina Lal had told NDTV. “His conviction was closure for me,” she had said.
Manu Sharma spent nearly 16 years in prison.
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