The convicted killer was recently found partying at Delhi’s trendy nightspots after he was released from prison, on parole

Manu Sharma is back in prison, believably having completed all the three tasks – grandmother’s religious rites, looking after the ageing mother and attending to his business – for which he was taken out of Indian capital’s high-security jail by his powerful parents.

Watching these developments with amused interest, now I feel for Manu’s fellow jail inmates who are not equally fortunate to have as powerful parents to manage their extended holidaying paroles through sheer kindness from the government, to immunize themselves against law.

And had it not been the irresponsible bar brawl, guns wouldn’t have been out against the playboy son of the influential parents, who had also neutralized the media against reporting about their worthless lad coming out of jail on parole way back in September.

Their might and authority had even drawn the otherwise clean Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to an election campaign in their stronghold recently.

Manu’s powerful parents were, therefore, rightfully eager to see their jailed son among themselves, caress him, love him, console him, cheer him and take him to religious places to bring peace to the family.

But little did the brat realise that out on parole, he actually subjected his parents, once again, to degrading and humiliating situations.

His parents had not gifted him the parole for re-attempting Delhi’s night life, being well aware that their son was jailed for his acts on a hot Delhi night-party.

They had been a concerned lot, about their son Siddharth Vashisht, a.k.a. Manu Sharma, after reports of his motiveless killing of a celebrity barmaid Jessica Lall at a crowded socialite party in 1999. Thereafter, Manu’s father Venod Sharma, a wealthy and influential Congressman from Haryana, had to bear most of the brunts until the Sharma family’s ordeal got over early 2006 when it was held by a Delhi city court that Manu was not the killer. However, the celebrations were short-lived as a higher court, in a prosecution appeal, found Manu’s acquittal faulty in law, after going through voluminous record and hearing Manu’s high-profile counsel Ram Jethmalani.

Manu was then sentenced to life imprisonment in December 2006 and it came to be believed that rich and powerful are actually not above law.

This belief stands shaken, today. In fact, it has been broken.

Together with this, the belief of Manu’s parents in him has also been shattered. They have lost their dear son, again. Now, they’ll need to visit the prison to touch him, feel him, love him.

All this while, while the ritualistic media has been stoning the Satan, castigating indefensible Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit and seeking explanations from the red-faced Lt. Governor Tejendra Khanna, I, throughout, have been feeling much for Manu’s poor parents. Manu let them down.

Their wealth and power today wear a stoic silence to Manu’s law, which the 32-yr-old tried to enforce once again at a Delhi night.

Manu proved to be a dangerous man. He shamelessly tried to relive what happened 10 years ago at the Tamarind.

Delhi’s night life seduced him enough to an exclusive club-bar which even the son of Delhi Police Commissioner finds hard to resist.

Manu’s parents have become poorer. Their son will have to complete the rest of his life term in jail, unless he succeeds at the Supreme Court.

Until then, the nights at Delhi’s exclusive clubs and bars shall go on, without Manu, of course.