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October 18, 2001
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Jessica case: Witness identifies prime accused

T L Garg in New Delhi

Prosecution witness George Mailhot on Thursday identified prime accused Manu Sharma as the person who was asked to hand over his gun after a shooting incident in which ramp model Jessica Lal was killed.

When additional sessions judge R L Chugh asked Mailhot to identify the accused, he did so by touching Sharma.

"Manu Sharma is the person whom Bina had accosted and asked for the gun" after the shooting, Mailhot told Chugh.

Mailhot's wife, Bina Ramani, owned the illegal bar where Lal was killed on April 29, 1999.

Sharma, son of a former Union minister, allegedly shot Lal after she refused to serve him a drink at the Tamarind Court, where Lal was working as a celebrity barmaid.

Mailhot said he followed Sharma after the shooting for a short distance after which "I could not see him any more."

"I ran towards the Mehrauli police station and informed them that a girl had been shot. On my return, I learnt that Bina had taken Jessica to hospital. I followed them to the hospital."

Cross-examined by Sharma's counsel R K Naseem, Mailhot admitted that 'there may have been uninvited persons' at the party the night Lal was shot. "There was always a guard at the complex but he was never told to check uninvited persons."

"We never made any detailed list of persons who came to the party," he added.

Mailhot's cross-examination will continue on Friday.

On Wednesday, a sixth prosecution witness in the case turned hostile, retracting from a statement he had made to the police about the night of the killing.

Fashion designer Rouble Dunglay had told the police that he had seen socialite Bina Ramani asking people to stop a man who had allegedly fired the fatal shots.

On Wednesday, he told Chugh that he had not actually seen Ramani but had heard a voice saying Lal had been shot.

There are nine accused in the case. All of them except Sharma are out on bail. There are over 100 prosecution witnesses in the case.

Indo-Asian News Service

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