"We had given up hope of getting justice some time back," Sabrina, Jessica's sister, said soon after Additional Sessions Judge S L Bhayana acquitted the nine accused in New Delhi as the Delhi Police failed to prove charges against Manu Sharma, son of Haryana Minister Vinod Sharma and main accused in the murder case, and eight others.
"The judgement has come as a closure of something that was going on for the past seven years. The way this case was progressing, we had given up all hope of getting justice," an emotionally choked Sabrina said.
"You will find that at every stage things had gone against us," she added. Three of the key eyewitnesses - model-turned-actor Shayan Munshi, Karan Rajput and electrician Shiv Lal Yadav - had turned hostile in court after identifying prime accused Manu Sharma before police.
Sabrina also said the family had not decided about its next step in the case. Jessica Lal was shot allegedly by Manu Sharma on April 29, 1999, after she refused to serve him a drink at a south Delhi bar functioning without a licence where she was filling in as a bartender. The bar, Tamarind Court, run by socialite Bina Ramani, has since shut down.
