The Hindu : New Delhi News : Shivani case sentences on Monday

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Shivani case sentences on Monday

Staff Reporter

– PHOTO: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

Suspended IPS officer R. K. Sharma, convicted in the Shivani Bhatnagar murder case, in police custody at the Karkardooma courts in Delhi on Thursday.

NEW DELHI: The court hearing the Shivani Bhatnagar murder case has reserved for Monday its order on quantum of sentence against the four convicts, even as the prosecution on Thursday sought death penalty for the suspended Indian Police Service officer Ravi Kant Sharma and his hired killer Pradeep Sharma.

“There are two categories of convicts in the case. R. K. Sharma and hired criminal Pradeep had played a more active role than the other two convicts,” said Special Public Prosecutor S. K. Saxena while seeking the gallows for them in the packed Karkardooma courtroom.

He said the duo had played a “more pivotal role” in the commission of the offence as the convicted IPS officer had all the intention to kill the “defenceless journalist” while the other convict was a “cold-blooded murderer” who eliminated Shivani for the sake of money.

On Tuesday, the court had held Sharma along with three others -- Pradeep, Sri Bhagwan and Satya Prakash -- guilty of murdering the Indian Express journalist in her East Delhi apartment on January 23, 1999.

Dressed in a maroon T-shirt, a pensive-looking Sharma stood in the dock for about 20 minutes after which he sought the court’s permission to sit on a chair citing his back ailment. Over the next couple of hours, he heard out the arguments patiently.

Making out a potent case for extreme punishment for the two, the prosecutor submitted that the case came under the “rarest of rare cases” category as defined by the Supreme Court because the murder of the helpless woman was pre-meditated and heinous.However, counsel for Sharma opposed the prosecution’s argument for death sentence, submitting that it was a simple case of murder involving the convict as an individual. He pleaded with the court for life imprisonment for his client citing Sharma’s excellent service record. Besides, the case did not fall under the “rarest of rare cases” category, he argued.

The Additional Sessions Judge, Rajender Kumar Shastri, later reserved the pronouncement of quantum of sentence for Monday. The court had on Tuesday held the four guilty while letting off Ved Prakash Sharma and Ved alias Kalu on grounds of insufficient evidence.

The prosecution had alleged that Sharma conspired to have Shivani killed after she threatened to expose him. The two allegedly were in a relationship and during his stint as an Officer on Special Duty in the Prime Minister’s Office in 1997 the IPS officer had “leaked” some secret documents to Shivani.

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