New Delhi:
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has defended her recommendation to give parole to Manu Sharma, the man convicted of killing model Jessica Lal in a Delhi pub.
Does this man deserve to be out on parole?
A two-month parole granted to Manu Sharma has sparked off a controversy.
Sharma was granted bail on the following grounds:- Performing the last rites of his grandmother
- To maintain social ties
- To attend to ageing mother and neglected family business
All perfectly above board say both his lawyer Ram Jethmalani and the Delhi government which cleared his case and recommended it to the Lieutenant governor.
"Nothing has been done for him out of turn, it's all done according to the procedure," said Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.
But a section of the legal fraternity says Manu Sharma is out due to his political clout, his father Vinod Sharma is a prominent politician from Haryana and was just elected to the state assembly by a huge margin.
"He is out only because of his political connections, he should not be out at all," said Kamini Jaiswal, senior advocate.
Like Manu Sharma, all convicts with appeals pending in the Supreme Court are entitled to parole. Just this year 77 convicts have been granted parole including Ranjit Singh, the killer of Lalit Maken and his wife Geetanjali.
But what has rattled many in this case are reports of Manu being spotted at a disco in the capital and his mother addressing a press meet at Chandigarh.
"I have nothing against him getting parole but someone should check if he really needed it," said Sabrina Lal.
Manu Sharma's parole may be legal, but this high profile case raises the question, are the grounds for parole always justified?