Vikas Yadav: Accused of conspiracy and destruction of evidence. Son of UP don D.P. Yadav. Yadav Sr has several cases registered against him, including excise cases, land grabbing, extortion, kidnapping and murder. Vikas has two, the Jessica case, and the pending case of Nitish Katara’s murder, for which he is still in jail. Katara was friendly with Yadav’s sister Bharti, who is the main witness in the case. Since she has gone to London and has refused to depose, the case is likely to go the Jessica way.
Alok Khanna: Also accompanied Manu to Tamarind Court. His Tata Sierra was used by Tony and Vikas to retrieve Manu’s Tata Safari from Qutab Colonnade. Also worked for Coca Cola at the time but has switched jobs since.
Yograj Singh: Cricketer Yuvraj Singh’s father, accused of sheltering Manu for two days. Himself a former cricketer (1 Test), he dabbled in Punjabi films too. Was also an accused in another case in which he ran down and injured a scooterist. Was found guilty. Ravinder Sudan: Manu is said to have handed him the murder weapon before fleeing Delhi. He destroyed it and went to the US.
Shyam Sunder Sharma: Younger brother of Venod Sharma, better known as son-in-law of former President Shankar Dayal Sharma. Was accused of financing and helping Ravinder Sudan dispose of the weapon and go to the US.
Pandit R.K. Naseem: The lawyer defending Manu Sharma. Considered one of the best criminal lawyers in the country, he has the reputation of tackling witnesses in a way that confuses them or turns them hostile. He successfully represented Santosh Kumar, accused of raping and killing Priyadarshini Mattoo. The highlight of that case, too, was shoddy investigation by the CBI and confusing reports from CFSL.
S.K. Saxena: Special public prosecutor, gets many high-profile cases from Delhi Police but does not have much to show in terms of results. He was at one time prosecution lawyer in the Nitish Katara case, and also represents the police in the sensational Romesh Sharma and Shivani Bhatnagar cases.
S.K. Bhayana: Originally hailing from Rohtak in Haryana, Bhayana was a practising lawyer in Tis Hazari courts for 12 years before he became a judge. He was overlooked for promotion in 2004 but got it immediately after the Jessica judgement. Bhayana also heard the famous BMW case for one year but refrained from giving any judgement. People in the legal fraternity say that he is generally known to give more convictions than acquittals.
