s Rich

s Rich


March 13, 2006


s Rich

By SOMINI SENGUPTA








• s Slaying (Jul 18, 2004)

• s Excesses (Jul 13, 2004)

• s Killing (Jul 13, 2004)






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EW DELHI, March 12 — The crime itself was sensational. A fashion model was shot dead in an unlicensed bar stuffed full of fashionable people. The prime suspect was a member of the capital's brat pack and the son of an influential politician.

The verdict turned out to be even more lurid. Nearly seven years after the killing of Jessica Lall at the trendy Tamarind Court bar and the about-face of several celebrity witnesses on the stand, a Delhi court acquitted all nine defendants, including Manu Sharma, the one accused of being the gunman. The others were charged with aiding him.

The acquittal two weeks ago unleashed a rare outrage in this country, just as it raised uncomfortable questions about the uneven course of justice in a society evermore polarized between the well-heeled and the rest.

Most noticeably among India's urban middle class, the acquittal has released a pent-up frustration with an often blundering and corrupt law enforcement bureaucracy and a deep disgust with the rich and famous who, by all appearances, manipulated it to their advantage.

"The concept of justice has once again proved to be a silly bedtime story for the gullible," concluded an editorial in The Hindustan Times, an English-language daily.

For nearly two weeks, the Jessica Lall story has dominated Delhi's newspapers and magazines, providing both a window on the world of the privileged and a morality tale about the perils of Indian justice. The latest issue of the newsmagazine The Week blazed on its cover: "How the Rich Get Away with Murder!"

A 24-hour news channel, NDTV, stepped well beyond news gathering to start a campaign urging viewers to petition for a new trial; in a matter of days, more than 200,000 cellphone text messages had poured in.

Indians have flocked into the streets for marches and rallies, including a candlelight vigil at the capital's most famous monument, the Gateway of India, that resembled a scene from a movie. That was because it was lifted from a scene from a recent Bollywood blockbuster called "Rang de Basanti," about a group of Indian college students rising up against an inept state bureaucracy.

The film featured a scene of a candlelight vigil at the same spot to protest the killing of an innocent young man.

"It's a deep, deep fear that it could happen to your children and the politicians are running amok," is how Malvika Singh, publisher of the monthly journal Seminar, characterized the fury over the Lall case. "It's a public outcry. The courts have failed us. Governance is nonexistent. The law-and-order situation even in the capital city has broken down. A point comes when the citizenry says enough."

The outcry seems to have achieved instant results. The police last week ordered an investigation into unidentified people who are said to have conspired to tamper with evidence. The police have not officially said they would seek a new trial, but the public pressure seems difficult to ignore.

"One never expected it," the victim's sister Sabrina Lall said in a recent interview. "It's been a great sense of support."

Ram Jethmalani, a lawyer who represented the prime suspect in a bail hearing, insisted that there were insufficient grounds for a retrial.

In a speech on Saturday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, without referring directly to the Lall case, said it was time to "reflect" on whether existing laws were sufficient or "whether we need new provisions in law so that the justice system is seen to deliver justice."

The facts of the case, as reported by the Indian news media, are these: Late one night in April 1999, Jessica Lall, 34, was working behind the bar well past closing time at the now-shuttered Tamarind Court restaurant when a customer, Manu Sharma, heir to a sugar mill fortune and son of a politician, demanded a drink.

Ms. Lall reportedly refused. Mr. Sharma was accused of shooting her at point-blank range. Or at least that is what witnesses initially told the police.

As it turned out, the restaurant was not licensed to serve liquor. The owner contended it was a private party. The bloody mess of the killing was quickly cleaned up, ridding the crime scene of crucial evidence. The weapon disappeared.

Mr. Sharma confessed to the police, then retracted his statement, which inexplicably had been taken without following legal procedures. Once in court, a stream of witnesses lifted straight off the gossip pages said they could no longer recall what had happened, or who had shot whom.

On Feb. 21, a Delhi High Court judge rendered his verdict, saying the evidence was insufficient to convict anyone.

On Tuesday, a pack of 150 college students poured onto Parliament Street, the hub of the capital, to protest. "Jessica, Jessica," they chanted, pumping their fists.

They held up their homemade placards. "Wake up from Ur Insane Slumber," read one, as though it were a cellphone text message. "We are in a country where you can get away if your dad is a politician," read another.

Many of the students said they were first-time protesters. Something about the acquittals hit home. But they took pains to point out that the protests were not just for Ms. Lall, but for all Indians who deserved a fair shake. "It could be happening to anyone," said Divya Prakash, 19. "We do identify with her."

Jumping on the Jessica bandwagon, a Brazilian cosmetics company, Surya, passed out "Justice for Jessica" temporary tattoos. The company, which recently entered the Indian market, also volunteered to run a "Justice for Jessica" Web site, a move that conveniently yielded the names and e-mail addresses of thousands of Indians who registered their support online.

The students, the news media and others were not alone in their unflattering impression of the justice system. The Supreme Court, ruling in an unrelated case last week, made clear that it, too, was aware of the exploitation of the courts. "Laws are like cobwebs," it said, "which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through."

If the Lall verdict outraged a nation, it also raised a certain discomfort. Why, in a country where cases of corrupt, inept, blundering justice have long been familiar, was everyone rallying together for this case?

In life and in death, this case shows, it still matters who you are. "If you take out a march like this for the common man, the media won't cover it," said Ravi Pathak, one of the organizers of the college students' march.

Next to the students stood another group of protesters, much larger but out of the focus of television cameras — farmers holding placards denouncing rural debt.

"The Jessica Lall narrative is essentially about The Beautiful People vs. The Beautiful People," wrote Vinod Mehta, editor of Outlook, in a stinging back-page essay. "After all, Jessica was horribly let down by The Beautiful People who turned tail."

That aspect, said Dipankar Gupta, a sociologist, was what had fueled the clamor among middle-class Indians — not simply rage against the killer, but also against those who protected the killer.

"I think the outrage was against the fashion types, the glossy types who went back on their testimony," Mr. Gupta said. "There's an extraordinary delight in setting them right."