Cases have been filed against actor Shayan Munshi and a ballistics expert Prem Kumar Manocha for turning hostile in the Jessica lall murder case. Two complaints have been lodged by the Delhi High Court registrar before the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vidya Prakash seeking their prosecution for perjury as per the High Court order on March 22.
Munshi, who was led as primary witness of prosecution in the case, and Manocha are accused of lying on oath during trial before the Sessions Court and introducing the “two-gun theory”, which was the primary defence taken by the convicts.
Seeking Munshi’s prosecution under Section 193 of the IPC (giving false evidence in judicial proceedings), the complaint states, “This change of statement by him was to clearly align himself with a defence taken by the accused in trial that there were two persons at the spot with firearms and that two separate guns have been fired. The evidence of the accused Shayan Munshi was on a material and critical position for the case.”
Munshi was at the bar counter when lall was shot dead on the intervening night of April 29-30, 1999 by Manu Sharma, son of Haryana Congress leader Venod Sharma, after she refused to serve him a drink at a late night party in socialite Bina Ramani’s Tamarind Court restaurant in South Delhi’s Mehrauli area.
It was on his statement that police had lodged an FIR but he later retracted as he deposed in court that the shot which hit lall was fired by some other person. Munshi had also disowned his statement saying it was recorded in Hindi which he did not know.
The two cartridges recovered from the spot were for ballistic opinion. Manocha had earlier said that no definite opinion could be given on them unless suspected firearm was available for examination. However, during trial, he changed his stand and deposed that inspection of the two cartridges revealed that they were not fired from the same weapon.