The Hindu : New Delhi News : R. K. Sharma held guilty in Shivani murder case

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R. K. Sharma held guilty in Shivani murder case

Staff Reporter

Three others also convicted by Delhi court; two acquitted

THE VICTIM: Shivani Bhatnagar

– PHOTO: SANDEEP SAXENA

CONVICTED: Suspended IPS officer R. K. Sharma, prime accused in the Shivani Bhatnagar murder case, in police custody at the Karkardooma courts in Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: More than nine years after Indian Express principal correspondent Shivani Bhatnagar was murdered in her East Delhi apartment, a court here on Tuesday held suspended Indian Police Service officer and prime accused Ravi Kant Sharma guilty of criminal conspiracy and murder. Three other accused were also held guilty by the court, while two were acquitted.

Pronouncing the judgment in a packed Karkardooma courtroom, Additional Sessions Judge Rajendra Kumar Shastri said the prosecution had been able to prove the charges against R. K. Sharma, Shri Bhagwan, Pradeep and Satya Prakash beyond reasonable doubt. However, the court let off Ved Prakash Sharma and Ved alias Kalu on grounds of insufficient evidence.

The accused had been charged with criminal conspiracy along with murder and destruction of evidence. Pradeep was additionally charged with misappropriation.

The court has fixed Thursday for arguments on point of sentence following which the quantum of sentence would be pronounced.

In arriving at the verdict, the court lent credence to the prosecution’s evidence of telephonic conversations between the prime accused and the co-accused at crucial times.

The court also agreed with the prosecution’s claim that though there was no eyewitness in the case, circumstantial evidence was sufficient to convict the guilty.

While convicting Pradeep, the court relied on the fact that the fingerprints lifted from the scene of crime matched his fingerprints. Also, the handwriting in the entry register at Navkunj Apartments in I. P. Extension, where young Shivani lived with her journalist husband Rakesh Bhatnagar, matched Pradeep’s handwriting. Pradeep had been charged with carrying out the killing.

In acquitting Ved Prakash and Ved alias Kalu, the court agreed with the defence plea that a person who is apprehending arrest was least likely to keep something in his possession that could link him to the murder. According to the prosecution, Shivani’s gold chain, which had gone missing after the murder, was recovered from Ved Prakash. The police had recovered a camera, which too had gone missing from Shivani’s house after the murder, from Ved alias Kalu, the prosecution had alleged.

The prosecution had alleged that R. K. Sharma decided to eliminate Shivani when she threatened to expose him. The two had developed intimacy when Sharma was posted as Officer on Special Duty at the Prime Minister’s Office in New Delhi and during that period he had leaked certain classified documents pertaining to the St. Kitts case to Shivani, who was then part of a Special Investigation Team of her newspaper.

The court refused to accept the prosecution’s claim that leaking of sensitive documents could have jeopardised Sharma’s career. It, however, agreed that Sharma decided to eliminate Shivani when she threatened to expose their intimacy.

In its charge-sheet, the prosecution had said that Pradeep reached Shivani’s apartment on January 23, 1999, and managed to gain access on the pretext of handing over a wedding card and a box of sweets. When she opened the door, he strangled and stabbed Shivani before fleeing.

The first arrest in the case was made only in July 2002, when the police picked up Shri Bhagwan. Subsequently the other accused were arrested. R. K. Sharma, who was then posted as Inspector-General (Prisons) in Haryana, continued to avoid arrest for nearly 45 days before surrendering in an Ambala court after the Delhi High Court rejected his anticipatory bail plea. He was then brought to Delhi on transit remand.

To appeal

Talking to reporters after the verdict was pronounced on Tuesday, defence lawyer D. B. Goswami said his client would appeal in the Delhi High Court.

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