Memoir of a murder most foul

The well-known fashion designer, entrepreneur, restaurateur and socialite Bina Ramani, who was imprisoned during investigations in the Jessica Lal murder case, gives a riveting account of the tragedy in her memoir Bird in a Banyan Tree.

The author’s astonishing sense of history and explorations into the labyrinthine corridors of Imperial Delhi’s ancient past led to the discovery of the 14th century Hauz Khas village — a cluster of magnificent buildings nestled around a water reservoir, which was consecrated to time for seven centuries. Until Bina, in the 1980s, established the boutique Once upon a Time in the village and, with her custom-designed textiles and jewellery, drew attention to a forgotten chapter of Delhi’s past.

Hauz Khas village was soon patronised by the wealthy and powerful of Delhi, and a rapidly accelerating foreign clientele. The now well-established village, known the world over for its exclusive shops and restaurants, is Bina’s creation. Through it she contributed to the metamorphosis of Delhi — an imperial, imperious city but with a provincial flavour — into an urban metropolis that parallels the most sophisticated of European and American cities.

Bina next explored the long-abandoned city of Lalkot, south of Hauz Khas village in the Mehrauli area around the 11th century Qutab Minar. “One drizzly monsoon afternoon, I came across a long, columned building with its many doors and windows shuttered. I heard the peacocks cry out from behind in chorus and I imagined them dancing in the rain as a welcome for me,” she writes. She entered through a small door into an overgrown garden and mango orchard, part of a forgotten palatial mansion. Intuitively she felt that destiny had brought her to this spot; without tarrying, she hired the pleasure palace and converted it into the Qutub Colonnade — Delhi’s first heritage shopping mall, where The Tamarind Court Café was established.

Bina successfully ventured into the world of Indian fashion and had meaningful interactions with Indira Gandhi, Vasundara Raje Scindia, Naveen Patnaik and other glitterati, many of whom became close friends with her. But never one of the idle rich, she was a focused entrepreneur all along, who understood the need of Delhi’s elite for fashion and entertainment. The nightclub ‘No Exit’ that she set up in Hauz Khas village drew huge crowds. In all her restaurants, it appears, liquor was served freely without a licence, even though applications had been made and processed.

The fulcrum of Bina’s memoir is the murder of Jessica Lal, a celebrity bartender, who was shot dead at point blank range by Manu Sharma, a youth with strong political connections, at the Qutub Colonnade. This bloodcurdling murder, which rocked Delhi and was nationally condemned, brought into focus Bina’s role as a primary witness. The author recalls, in detail, the horror story of Jessica’s murder and how she and her daughter Malini took her to the hospital. Jessica was shot at 2 a.m. when she refused to serve a drink to the accused after the unlicensed bar had been shut for the night. During the trial, key eyewitnesses, including model-turned actor Shayan Munshi, turned hostile and refused to identify Manu Sharma in court. Bina, Malini and Georges Mailhot, Bina’s Canadian husband, identified the murder accused in court.

The author writes that had she chosen to co-operate in the cover-up, she would have benefited greatly. But the identification of Sharma resulted in Bina’s ignominious arrest and incarceration in Delhi’s Tihar jail on trumped up charges, the closure of the Tamarind Court restaurant and the Qutub Colonnade for 13 years, immense harm to her business interests, and threats to her life and liberty. Her name, she says, was dragged through the ‘ ganda nallah ’ through constant bashing in the media.

Sadly, not one of her high-flying friends mentioned in the book — the royal family of Faridkot, Rajmata Gayatri Devi, the Nehru-Gandhi family and dozens of her friends and admirers — came to her rescue during the worst crisis of her life, says the author. But her husband Mailhot and some family members stood by her.

She was accused of wipingthe blood of Jessica from the crime scene after the shooting, but she denies this: “Let me categorically state — that I did not wipe any blood from the scene of the shooting, nor did I order anyone else to do so. I had no motive to do that. Nor did it have any bearing on solving the crime.”

The fascinating memoir details how after the harrowing times, the tide turned in her favour and Manu Sharma was sentenced to life imprisonment. Later, a film was made based on the Jessica Lal murder case which became a hit. After the curtains came down on this horror story, Bina withdrew from the glittering lights of Delhi to retire to Goa with her husband and start life afresh by the shores of the Arabian Sea. “I want to live before I die,” she says.

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