Jessica Lall case: HC turns down Vikas Gill's plea

A city court has declined the plea of Vikas Gill, a proclaimed offender (PO) in Jessica Lall murder case, seeking closure of Look Out Circular (LOC) issued against him after he went missing.

In an application submitted in the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) A. K. Kuhar, Gill contended he was willing to join the investigation pertaining to submission of a frivolous certificate if the LOC against him is closed.

Opposing Gill’s plea, the investigating officer (IO) argued that the accused had evaded the law despite the court’s repeated summons and warrants and that he were also to be arrested for furnishing a deceptive certificate.

Finding substance in the IO’s argument, a link magistrate who took up the application in ACMM's absence dismissed Gill's plea saying the standing LOC should not concern his desire to come back to India.

Gill was accused of driving the car in which Manu Sharma, who had been sentenced to life term by the Delhi High Court for killing ramp model Jessica Lall in 1999, allegedly reached Chandigarh after shooting her.

Though Gill was acquitted by the HC in December 2006 for want of evidence, it had given a go ahead to Delhi Police for declaring him a PO and attaching his properties in Jagraon at Ludhiana under the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) for evading the legal processes.

The court’s order had come following the revelation by the police that Gill had fled to the US without permission of the lower court in October 2004 during the trial and has been absconding since then.

He was also not present when the court had acquitted all the nine accused in the case.