A journalist, who is more of an activist teams up with the sister of a murdered model, as she gets interested in the case and wants to bring justice to her case.
Devastated when she is told that that her sister, Jessica Lall, is shot dead by Manish Bhardwaj, the son of Pramod, a Congress party Member of Parliament in Haryana, Delhi-based Sabrina Lall, in the company of her parents, attends the Court to view a charade that will lead to the acquittal of the accused and his accomplices seven years after the incident. Disillusioned by rampart police corruption and inefficiency; a stagnant British introduced legal system; the passing of her mother & the hospitalization of her father, she retreats unto herself. Then foul-mouthed NDTV employee, Meera Gaity, known for being more of an activist than a Journalist, takes an interest in this incident, and uncovers conspiracy & corruption that led to the accused' acquittals - leading to a near India-wide protest. While preparing herself to participate in a candle-lit procession at Delhi's India Gate, Meera will confront Sabrina and will come to know the reasons why the latter refuses to be involved in this situation any more.—rAjOo ([email protected])
Tending bar at an elite event in Delhi in 1999, India, Jessica (Myra Karn) refuses to serve three men after the last call. One of the men, Manish (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub), who's the son of a big-time politician, shoots her in the head in response. There are dozens of eyewitnesses, but as Jessica's sister, Sabrina Lal (Vidya Balan), discovers, they are either conveniently forgetful or willing to sell their testimony to the highest bidder, leaving an open-and-shut case hostage to greed and political influence.Other witnesses inside the room included party host Mallika Sehgal (Bubbles Sabharwal) who even tries to stop Manish (Manu) when he tried to run away after shooting Jessica. Pramod Bharadwaj (Sunil Sonar) is Manu's father and a minister in Haryana cabinet. He hides Manu in a guest house in Manali.
Manish is taken into custody by the police and investigations are begun, when he surrenders in a Ambala court. He is brought to Delhi and questioned. His confession to the murder and subsequent actions (hiding the murder weapon etc) are videotaped by inspector N.K. He finds the escape vehicle, which also has a live cartridge, which matches the cartridges found at the crime scene. But the pistol is not found.
However, due to political pressure, all the witnesses turn hostile one by one, including Jessica's actor and model friend Vikram Jai Singh (Neil Bhoopalam). Inspector N.K. (Rajesh Sharma) informs Sabrina that one of the two bullets that were sent for verification has been replaced. NK also tells Sabrina that of the 300 people who were at the party, only 7 remained, all the rest claimed to have left by 12 midnight, before the shooting took place. The whole case rests on these 7 witnesses and if any one of them lie, Manu could walk free. She meets Dharam Saxena (Jagat Rawat) a laborer who was in the room that night and saw Manu fire towards Jessica. She pays Dharam Rs 20K when he says he will tell the truth in court, but needs money to solve his personal problems.Naina Sehgal (Samara Chopra) the girl who was harassed by Manu before he shot Jessica, agrees to testify in court, but her mother Mallika is not sure if she saw Manu escaping that night. Meanwhile Pramod and his team work the witnesses and Vikram stops taking Sabrina's calls. She meets the DCP and talks about evidence tampering (NK prompts her to do so), but the DCP refuses to entertain her. Dharam tells Sabrina that Vikram is in Delhi and has taken a bribe of Rs 1 Crore from Pramod.
Sabrina's repeated attempts into getting the witnesses and evidence in order to prove Jessica's crime fail one by one. The court case runs until the year 2006. Naina and Peter (Mallika's husband) identify Manu in court. But Mallika is unsure and Dharam says he wasn't in Delhi that day. Vikram says in court that he doesn't know Hindi and the statement was taken by police in Hindi. He says Manu didn't shoot Jessica. Due to the lack of evidence and witnesses, the court acquits the culprits. Sabrina's mother suffers a heart attack due to the trauma caused by the news and dies in the hospital. Hearing this, Sabrina's father also collapses in the hospital and is taken to the ICU.
Meanwhile, Meera Gaiti (Rani Mukerji), a reporter who covered the Kargil war, finds out about the acquittal through the newspaper and gets shocked since she expected Jessica's case to be an open and shut case (there were more than 300 witnesses and many of them noted civil personalities). Meera takes the matter in her hands and plans to get Justice for Jessica. With the approval of her editor, she performs various sting operations and exposes the recklessness of the law and order of the country while raising questions about the police and the authorities. she tapes Vikram speaking perfect Hindi and even admitting that he had to chose between rs 1 crore and a bullet to his brain.N.K. Singh realizes his mistake and helps Meera by sending her the tape of Manish where he confesses his crime. Meera uses the clip and broadcasts it on national TV and starts to build up pressure on the system and the political party.
Soon, the public that has been following the case since so long on television decides to protest against the powerful clout and bring justice to Jessica. A number of phone calls, SMS, and voice messages are sent through the channel in support for Jessica. Meera uses this entire support from the public to reach out to the Government and even the President for their help. A Candlelight march is organized for Jessica by people of Delhi to stand for her and demand justice. Meanwhile, Sabrina, who has been through all the trauma while fighting for her sister in court, seems to have given up and moved on. Meera approaches Sabrina to stand up again for her sister and assures her that she would get justice this time as she has the support of the entire city.Political pressure gets mounted on the family of Manish and his politician father resigns from his position. The High Court summons the police for the recklessness they showed in the case. The police appeal to the High Court to have the case re-opened and it gets accepted. The case goes on fast track. The case goes further into Supreme Court where Manish Bharadwaj is found guilty for the crime and is sent for life imprisonment. His allies Vishal Rastogi and Lucky Singh get punished with four years in jail.In the end, it is known that Sabrina runs an advertising agency and does not have a boyfriend while her father is no more. Meera lives her life as she is.
