Manu Sharma Age, Wife, Family, Biography & More

Some Lesser Known Facts About Manu Sharma

• Does Manu Sharma drink alcohol?: Yes

• The former President of India, Shankar Dayal Sharma, was the father-in-law of Manu Sharma’s uncle, Sham Sunder Sharma.

• The Sharma Family is said to be very rich having assets worth Rs. 1000 Crore; including a bungalow in sector 9 Chandigarh, cinemas, three sugar mills, and many hotels across India.

• Manu Sharma has suffered Asthma since his childhood.

• He completed his undergraduate course in commerce from Chandigarh. After that, Manu wanted to pursue an MBA, but his father made him join the family business; handing him over the responsibility of one of their mills at Bhadson in Karnal.

• He was then a party freak and used to attend parties in Delhi.

• On 29 April 1999, in an unlicensed operating bar called Qutub Colonnade in Mehrauli (owned by the socialite Bina Ramani), Manu was partying when he demanded Jessica Lal to serve him alcohol which she refused to do despite being offered ₹1000 since the bar was closed. He shot her down from his .22mm pistol leading to her death.

• He was detained on the charges of destruction of evidence, murder, and other offences. All the 32 witnesses present at the party turned hostile in court. On 21 February 2006, Manu and other accused were acquitted by Delhi High Court since the police were unable to sustain the grounds of the case built against Manu. They also failed at recovering the weapon which was used to kill Jessica.

• The result of his acquittal led to a huge public outcry. The case was opened again in the Delhi High Court in March 2006. Later, a piece of concrete evidence that included the two cartridges, recovered from Manu’s car, helped in ruling Manu guilty of Jessica Lal’s murder, and was given the life imprisonment, and sent to Tihar Jail. He is imprisoned (since 18 December 2006) in Tihar jail along with other co-accused Amardeep Singh Gill and Vikas Yadav; both were involved in the destruction of evidence.
  

  Manu Sharma in Police Custody

• In 2009, he was granted parole twice for 30 days each by the then Lieutenant Governor of Delhi on the grounds of her ailing mother and grandmother, respectively. It was later found that his grandmother had already died in 2008 and her mother was seen in a media briefing for promotions in Chandigarh.  The same year, he was seen partying around in clubs in Delhi which could not save the then Chief Minister of Delhi ‘Sheila Dikshit’ who was criticised by a section of media for granting him parole.

• All this led to public outrage and hence, Delhi Government cancelled his parole, and on 11 November 2009, he returned to Tihar jail.

• ‘Siddhartha Vashishta Charitable Trust’ was founded by Manu during his imprisonment. The trust is being managed by his brother and mother. Reportedly the Trust assists to spread cancer awareness, child education, and rehabilitation of prisoners, etc. Over 130 children of prison inmates were said to be assisted by his trust by 2011.

• He raised the productivity of the carpentry factory and of the bakery from ₹2.16 Crore and ₹45 Lakh to ₹12 Crore and ₹2.3 Crore in 4 years as the marketing head of Tihar Jail.

• In 2011, parole was granted to him to attend the wedding of ‘Kartikeya Sharma‘ (his younger brother) though he was prevented to visit any nightclubs and also his movements were restricted in the cities; Chandigarh, Karnal, and Ambala.

• Parole of nine days in 2013 and another parole of 30 days in 2014, were granted to him to appear for his master’s exams.

• In 2015, he got married to a friend (who hails from Mumbai and is a model) in a low profile ceremony. According to sources, Manu knew the girl for ten years before getting married. The marriage had been delaying because of his conviction.

• In June 2020, Manu Sharma was acquitted on the recommendations made by the Sentence Review Board (SRB) on the basis of his good conduct in prison. The SRB also cited his enterprising business ideas, and his trust’s monetary efforts to educate children of prisoners as the reasons behind his acquittal. At the time of his acquittal, he was on parole as part of measures to reduce overcrowding in jails in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.