The son of a senior politician from India?s governing Congress party has been sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering a model in 1999.

Manu Sharma, son of former federal minister Venod Sharma, was convicted of shooting Jessica Lal dead in Delhi.

The case was reopened after he and eight others were acquitted in February, prompting a public outcry. Campaigners say media pressure over the case has encouraged the courts to take on India?s rich and powerful.

The Delhi high court also ordered Sharma to pay 50,000 rupees ($1,100) in compensation to Jessica Lal?s family. ?The court said since it was not a pre-planned murder, Manu Sharma will serve a life sentence,? RD Rana, one of Sharma?s lawyers, told reporters. The prosecution had demanded that Sharma be sentenced to death. Two of his friends, Vikas Yadav, the son of another politician, and Amardeep Singh Gill, a former manager with Coca Cola, were sentenced to four years in jail for destroying evidence.

?I am really happy with the judgement. I really could not ask for more,? the murdered model?s sister, Sabrina Lal, told reporters after the sentencing. Manu Sharma?s lawyers say they plan to appeal against his conviction in the Supreme Court. Prosecutors said Manu Sharma fired at Jessica Lal after she refused to serve him a drink at a fashionable restaurant in the capital where she was working as a waitress. Several eyewitnesses came forward to the police, but by the time the case came to trial seven years later key eyewitnesses had retracted their statements. The trial finally collapsed in February 2006 when the lower court judge said the prosecution?s case contained loopholes and there was insufficient evidence to convict. The acquittals sparked public outrage, with protest rallies and a sustained media campaign launched to demand justice for Jessica Lal, who was 34 when she was killed. Police appealed against the acquittals and opened an investigation into allegations that there had been a conspiracy to pervert justice.