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Sharma's fate hangs in balance, sentencing today
Published on Mon, Mar 24, 2008 at 08:30, Updated on Mon, Mar 24, 2008 at 14:37 in Nation section
Tags: Shivani Bhatnagar, Murder , New Delhi
MATTER OF LIFE OR DEATH: Prosecution wants the death penalty for R K Sharma and the hired killer Pradeep Sharma.
New Delhi: From a custodian of the law to a convicted law breaker, life has come full circle for suspended senior IPS officer R K Sharma.
Nine years after Indian Express reporter, Shivani Bhatnagar was brutally murdered, a Delhi court found former Haryana top-cop, R K Sharma and three others guilty of murder, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence.
On March 18, 2008, Delhi's Karkardooma court found Sharma and three others guilty of the January 1999 murder of the journalist.
All four were found guilty of murder, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence.
The brashness with which the crime was committed reeked of overconfidence on the part of the senior IPS officer, but inspite of all odds the prosecution not only succeeded in proving its case based on circumstantial evidence but also ensured that the former keeper of law now hangs between life and death.
The prosecution had earlier demanded the death sentence for Sharma and hired killer Pradeep Sharma, despite the fact that the defence claims this is not the rarest of the rare crime.
However, Sharma's lawyers had insisted that the evidence was not enough to award Sharma death penalty.
Defence Lawyer, D B Goswami had earlier said, "The crime does not fall into the category of extreme brutality and so I have requested the court for a life imprisonment for them."
Meanwhile, the court acquitted two other accused, Ved Prakash Sharma and Ved alias Kalu. The two were alleged to have kept a watch at Shivani's residence in Navkunj apartments on the day of the murder and then giving the hired killer Pradeep the all-clear signal.
Pradeep had reached Navkunj apartments at the behest of Sharma who decided to kill Shivani as she was blackmailing him to marry her.
(With inputs from Jemima Rohekar in New Delhi)
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Gowswamy's argumemnt this is not rarest of rare is not correct. Sharma is a senior police IAS officer. He should
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this such an shameful news th hear that an IPS officer can convict a murder like this.it i very sad
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