Life sentence for Manu Sharma in Lall murder case
Wednesday, December 20, 2006 02:35 [IST]
NEW DELHI: Two days after he was convicted for murdering model Jessica Lall, Manu Sharma, son of a senior Congress leader, was on Wednesday given life sentence by the Delhi High Court, rejecting prosecution demand for death penalty.
Discussion Board
Sharma, who surrendered after his conviction on Monday, was present in the jam-packed courtroom when a Bench comprising Justice R S Sodhi and Justice P K Bhasin pronounced life imprisonment for him.
The Bench also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Sharma, son of former Haryana Minister Vinod Sharma.
The other two convicts, Vikas Yadav, son of controversial Uttar Pradesh politician D P Yadav, and Amardeep Singh Gill alias Tony, an executive with MNC, were sentenced to four years imprisonment with a fine of Rs 3000 each for conspiring to destroy the evidence.
During an hour-long argument on the quantum of sentence, prosecution demanded maximum punishment of death sentence while defence sought leniency from the court on the ground that the case did not fall in the rarest of the rare category.
However, the Bench did not agree with the prosecution argument that the offence falls on the category of rarest of rare warranting death sentence.
"There is nothing on record that the offence falls under the rarest of rare category. The murder though intentional was committed without any prior motive," the Bench said.
"We have heard the counsel for both the parties, we are of the view that though the case has shaken the conscience of the society yet it cannot be held that the Manu deserved maximum punishment," the Bench said. |
