Squeeze Of Tamarind, Pinch Of Salt

Typical of Bina, say people who know her, to be so worried about saving her own skin first. A family friend of the Lalls, who was at the hospital at the time, recalled: "She then told Sabrina and her parents to forget about what had happened. She said, Jessica won’t come back, and advised them to forget about everything. ‘You don’t know the people you are up against. They are rich and dangerous. You will not achieve anything.’ I was shocked."

Bina’s words may have proved prophetic for the case but she could not save her bar from shutting down. The Tamarind Court Bar, located in the Qutab Colonnade, owned by Ramani, was closed down soon after the murder. But she got away cheaply by paying a paltry fine of Rs 200 for violating excise laws. The colonnade itself continues to flourish. Bina’s daughter Malini Ramani runs her boutique from there. The building survived a DDA order for demolition seven years ago for illegal construction and changing the facade of an old haveli. It also survived several complaints filed to the police by the Archaeological Survey of India for flouting heritage rules, which do not permit any activity within 100 metres of a protected site. The colonnade is very much within the 100-metre radius of the protected Qutab site.

It is Bina’s proximity to the people-who-matter which helps her out of tricky situations. A traffic cop posted in South District recalled how then Lt Governor Tejinder Khanna had pressurised the traffic police to allow guests at Tamarind Court to park their vehicles on the road outside the colonnade.

There were other charges which legal experts say should have been pressed against Bina, the main one being destruction of evidence, since she is believed to have ordered the cleaning of the spot where Jessica was murdered. Her role in the entire case remains dubious, with her flip-flops in identifying accused Manu Sharma. In court, she said it was somebody like him and the judgement quotes her as saying that "it does not satisfy that he was the same person whom she had confronted immediately after the offence". The leeway was enough for Manu. Her daughter too said much the same in court.

It was not the first time Bina had got into trouble over serving drinks in illegal bars. At Hauz Khas village, she had started a bar called No Exit. Run by Malini, it soon became the partying set’s late-night watering hole. But it was curtains for the bar after an Australian bartender died there in suspicious circumstances.

Bina is also well-known for circulating her London-based brother Gulu Lalvani’s photographs with Princess Diana to enhance her own celebrity status. She staged a coup of sorts when she teamed up with actor Richard Gere for an auction in aid of people affected by HIV/AIDS. It is said to have ended on a bad note as Gere found her "too commercial" after she wanted him to pose with an Escorts Yamaha bike donated by Nikhil Nanda.

Malini, too, had her share of troubles. She first made headlines for wearing a self-designed dress resembling the Indian tricolour. It was banned for being disrespectful to the flag. She is also known for holding rave parties, and her name came up in a high-profile cocaine case after a dealer, Ali, was arrested.