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Manu's trail to Tihar jail By: IANS December 21, 2006
CHANDIGARH: He was born to riches and educated at some of Indias best schools. But the Delhi High Court yesterday sealed Manu Sharmas fate in a dark prison vault when it sentenced him to life for the murder of ramp model Jessica Lall in 1999.
Scion of a billionaire business and political family that is into hotels, sugar mills, and orchards, 29-year-old Manu could not have foreseen that his life spent in a luxurious cocoon would end this way.
Life was busy
After his acquittal by a lower court in February, Manu had occupied himself in the family business.
Nine months later, that reprieve ended when the high court convicted him along with his friends Amardeep Singh Gill and Vikas Yadav, also accused in the murder of Nitish Katara for killing Jessica during a party in an upmarket Delhi restaurant on April 30, 1999 because she refused him a drink. That same day, he was sent to the Tihar jail and spent the winter night on a cold, hard floor that seems to be his destiny now.
Its a far cry from a busy life looking after his bar and nightclub, Blue Ice, in Chandigarh and the familys two sugar mills in Haryana and Punjab.
Powerful father
His father, Vinod Sharma, is a powerful politician in Haryana and represents the Ambala city assembly seat. Vinod was the most influential minister in the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government till he was forced to resign in October after the high court took up the Jessica Lall murder trial.
The resignation was the fallout of the trial being highlighted by an outraged media and the public and accusations that Vinod had used his position and money to get his son acquitted.
Rich family
The Sharma family is a big business house owning the Piccadilly group. The family business includes hotels in Chandigarh, Manali and other places, restaurants, cinema halls, orchards, farms, sugar mills and other properties.
The family, at one time, was into the liquor business and had complete monopoly in Himachal Pradesh. It had other powerful connections too. Manus uncle, Sham Sunder, who was acquitted in the same case for harbouring him, is a son-in-law of late president Shankar Dayal Sharma.
Manu, who has a younger brother Karthik, went to school at the elite Mayo College near Ajmer and also studied in a couple of leading schools in Chandigarh. A commerce graduate from a Delhi college, Manu was generally good to his friends.
Decent guy
He is a decent guy and has been good to all his friends. Though he came from a rich and influential family, he was not as spoilt as others. He was always very respectful. Even recently, he seemed the same, an old classmate of Manu, who did not wish to be named, said.
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