NEW DELHI – A new Bollywood film comes out this week based on the real-life murder of a fashion model by the son of a leading lawmaker, in a case that cast a spotlight on the corrupt nexus of police and politics. “No One Killed Jessica” tracks the fight for justice for Jessica Lal, who was working as a celebrity barmaid at a fashionable New Delhi restaurant in 1999 when she was gunned down for refusing to serve a customer a drink.
The prime suspect, Manu Sharma, whose father Venod was a former government minister, was acquitted at trial seven years later after several witnesses retracted their initial statements. The verdict prompted a public outcry and a media campaign that led to a prosecution appeal at which Sharma was convicted and given a life sentence for murder. The case was seen as a turning point in India, whose wealthy elite had long been able to have their own way with few fears of reprisals. The movie, to be released on Friday, stars Rani Mukherjee as a campaigning journalist who teams up with the model’s sister Sabrina, played by Vidya Balan, to overturn the lower court verdict.
“The higher strata of Indian society realised that they cannot get away with anything after the Jessica case,” the director told AFP. “They realised that the common man had found a voice and that voice will be heard if they do injustice to them.” Sharma’s initial acquittal, despite many witnesses implicating him at first, outraged the normally politically apathetic urban middle classes,
who organised vigils and internet campaigns protesting that India’s elite was above the law. In April last year, India’s Supreme Court upheld the verdicts against Sharma and two of his friends, who had been convicted of destroying evidence and helping him flee the scene of the crime. Sabrina Lal said at the time: “In these cases where high profile and powerful people are involved, the important message is that it is not an impossible fight. It is a message for everyone that justice is possible.”
But despite the hopes of change, India’s upper echelons have faced a string of scandals, particularly over the last 12 months, that have shocked many. Few people expect anyone to be brought to book given India’s dismal record on fighting graft, which has seen only one conviction of a senior politician way back in 1949.
