Shivani Bhatnagar case: Top cop gets life term

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Keywords: Sentencing, SC

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 Monday, all four accused including RK Sharma were awarded life imprisonment. He is the first IPS officer in the country to be convicted of murder.

Talking about the verdict retired IPS officer Maxwell Pereira said, "Judge has issued the right sentence of life imprisonment. I am disappointed only in the verdict of Pradeep Sharma as it could have been considered rarest of rare cases. Delhi police investigated well. It's a tribute to the young ACP Hemant Chopra who died after investigation. He spent three months working on it."

The court has also slapped a fine of Rs 20,000 on RK Sharma, while the other three have been fined Rs 10,000 each.

The death penalty was not awarded to RK Sharma only because he does not have a criminal past and the court said that it was not the rarest of the rare case.

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.

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."

The court however 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.

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.

(With inputs from Jemima Rohekar in New Delhi)