“Knowing that a grave offence had been committed he continued to commit an act by which he intended to shield the guilty and remove the evidence,” the court remarked accepting the police’s arguments on Gill’s role in the case.

In a relief for Yadav, the Judges agreed to consider the time spent by him in prison during the entire trial of the case.

Moments after he was handed down life imprisonment, Manu Sharma appeared resigned to his fate. While his counsel were busy completing the procedural formalities, he was being taken to the gallery outside the court-room by the police personnel, where he said, “Mere bhagya mein yehi tha, taqdeer ka faisla (this was in my fate. This was what was destined).”

His counsel Naseem said he would appeal. “We are going to file an appeal. Bina Ramani has wrongly been held as an eyewitness. She was not presented as an eyewitness even by the investigating officer Surinder Sharma before the trial court,” he said.

Sabrina Lall, Jessica’s sister who all this while had maintained that she never wanted death penalty for Manu Sharma, was “extremely happy.” “I feel a man like him should realise that nobody is above law. Giving him death would mean more of a punishment for his parents and family,” said an overwhelmed sister whose wait for seeing the killers of Jessica behind bars came to an end.