NEW DELHI: Sabrina Lal, who fought a long legal battle for Jessica Lal, expects that Manu Sharma, who killed her sister, never ever repeats the same mistake again.
“Honestly speaking I don’t have any reaction...I am feeling completely numb,” said Sabrina, on Manu Sharma’s release from jail. “The only thing I pray to god is that he never ever repeats the same mistake ever again in his life and he has learnt his lesson and his reforms,” she added.
Manu Sharma, son of Congress leader and former union minister Venod Sharma had spent 17 years in jail, after being convicted in 2006 for shooting Jessica Lal in 1999. Since then, Sabrina had been leading the legal battle seeking justice.
“I think justice has been served. Right from day 1, I have always maintained that I wanted Manu Sharma punished for my sister’s murder. I didn’t want this question mark hanging over his head and walking free. I was never praying for blood and never wanted the death sentence and the quantum of punishment was never what I was fighting for. My part of justice was that he will be convicted for my sister’s murder and put away in jail for a long period of time,” she told the reporter.
In 2018, Sabrina had said she forgave Manu Sharma and would not object if he were freed.
“Two years ago, I was already in the process of accepting the fact that he is going to be released, which finally happened now. Whether 14 years or 18 years... I hope he has reformed and never ever makes the same mistake again,” she stated.
Sabrina pressed that it was her hope of getting justice that drove her for so many years. “Without hope, there is nothing. Unfortunately you have to fight for your rights and it is not like a right. Justice should be a right which one should take for granted. But unfortunately in our country, if you are pitted against the powerful then you have to go through lot of trial and turbulence. But at the end of the day, you have to believe and you have to have a hope...,” Sabrina signs off.