The acquittal of the nine accused people including the main culprit Manu Sharma and his aides – Vikas Yadav etc. is a blot on the face of the Indian Judiciary and The Police.
The role of the Police played a decisive factor in the acquittal besides the eyewitnesses’ turning hostile. Jessica Lal murder is a burning example of how the investigative agencies deliberately tempered with the evidence, by not registering FIR at the right moment, by not providing proper security to the eyewitness, by not providing the very video CD to the trial court in which Manu Sharma has admitted about his crime – to save the son of a prominent and wealthy politician.
India’s ramshackle judicial system has become a by word for corruption, influence peddling and political chicanery. The judgment has shown how many lapses were made to distort the criminal justice system in favor of the ‘high profile’ political son.
Despite all the stench the Jessica Lal murder case is also a major example of how the public and media outrage could help usher - in long overdue reforms. The acquittal of all the persons charged with the murder of Jessica Lal resulted in much hue and cry from all the sections of the society. The media too refused to accept the judicial verdict. It refused to let Police get away with their lucrative indolence in this case. Civil society woke up and with it roused the conscience and instinct of the Judiciary forcing the Delhi High Court to summon the files of the case from the Delhi Police.
Still it has to be seen, how long this wakefulness lasts when the files wend their slow way through the courts, impeded by procrastination.
The Delhi high court has asked the Delhi Police Commissioner to send a status report in four weeks and said it will hear the matter on 19th April, which is quite a long eternity as the establishment has a very very thick skin, thickened further by the fact that the Public has a very very short memory.
The role of the Police played a decisive factor in the acquittal besides the eyewitnesses’ turning hostile. Jessica Lal murder is a burning example of how the investigative agencies deliberately tempered with the evidence, by not registering FIR at the right moment, by not providing proper security to the eyewitness, by not providing the very video CD to the trial court in which Manu Sharma has admitted about his crime – to save the son of a prominent and wealthy politician.
India’s ramshackle judicial system has become a by word for corruption, influence peddling and political chicanery. The judgment has shown how many lapses were made to distort the criminal justice system in favor of the ‘high profile’ political son.
Despite all the stench the Jessica Lal murder case is also a major example of how the public and media outrage could help usher - in long overdue reforms. The acquittal of all the persons charged with the murder of Jessica Lal resulted in much hue and cry from all the sections of the society. The media too refused to accept the judicial verdict. It refused to let Police get away with their lucrative indolence in this case. Civil society woke up and with it roused the conscience and instinct of the Judiciary forcing the Delhi High Court to summon the files of the case from the Delhi Police.
Still it has to be seen, how long this wakefulness lasts when the files wend their slow way through the courts, impeded by procrastination.
The Delhi high court has asked the Delhi Police Commissioner to send a status report in four weeks and said it will hear the matter on 19th April, which is quite a long eternity as the establishment has a very very thick skin, thickened further by the fact that the Public has a very very short memory.
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