The Hindu : Front Page : High Court upholds death sentence in Naina Sahni murder case

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Tuesday, Feb 20, 2007
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High Court upholds death sentence in Naina Sahni murder case

Staff Reporter

The tandoor murder case convict Sushil Sharma. - FILE PHOTO: AP

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday upheld the trial court judgment of 2003 awarding death sentence to former Delhi Pradesh Youth Congress president Sushil Sharma for killing his young wife Naina Sahni, former general secretary of the Mahila Congress Delhi unit, in 1995.

A Division Bench of the Court comprising Justice R. S. Sodhi and Justice P. K. Bhasin found no mitigating circumstances to reduce the sentence from capital punishment to life imprisonment as sought by Sharma.

Sharma had murdered Sahni in her rented house at Gole Market in New Delhi on July 2, 1995. He had cut the body into pieces, stuffed them into a gunny bag, and taken it to the now wound-up Bagiya Restaurant in the then Hotel Ashok Yatrti Niwas for disposal in a tandoor there.

However, alertness on the part of a Delhi Police beat constable foiled his bid as the cop raised an alarm upon spotting parts of the body lying besides the oven in the restaurant. Confirming the trial court's reference for confirmation of the death sentence awarded to Sharma, the Bench said: "There cannot be a better case for awarding death penalty than the present one.''

"The appellant definitely killed a helpless woman with whom he was enjoying life by living with her as her husband but with reluctance to proclaim openly as his wife,'' the Bench observed.

On the motive of the murder, the High Court said: "When Sharma thought that no more would he be able to accept Sahni as his wife whom he suspected of having affairs with other mighty people as well, he decided to finish her off pre-empting any attempt by her to tell the whole world about their relationship.''

Sharma chose to eliminate her fellow party leader on apprehension that his political career would take a sever beating once people came to know that he was staying with Naina Sahni without accepting her as his wife formally, the 85-page judgment stated.

"This is surely a case that falls within the category of rarest of rare cases in which no other punishment except the death sentence would be justified,'' the High Court ruled.

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