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Sentence likely today in Shivani murder case

R.K. Sharma

NEW DELHI: With arguments over the quantum of sentence in the Shivani Bhatnagar murder case over, a city court is likely to pronounce the sentence on the four convicts -- including suspended IPS officer R.K. Sharma -- on Monday.

This past Tuesday, Additional Sessions Judge Rajendra Kumar Shastri had held Sharma and three other accused -- Shri Bhagwan, Pradeep and Satya Prakash -- guilty of criminal conspiracy and murder in the nine-year-old case. Two other accused Ved Prakash Sharma and Ved alias Kalu, had been acquitted by the court.

On Thursday, while arguing over quantum of sentence, the prosecution had demanded death penalty for Sharma, who had hired killers to eliminate Shivani, and Pradeep, who was convicted for carrying out the killing. It had contended that the incident fell in the “rarest of the rare” category as it was pre-planned and executed with brutality against “a defenceless journalist” in cold blood.

The defence, however, had argued that the incident did not fall under the “rarest of the rare” category. Sharma’s counsel had also cited his excellent official record while requesting the court for awarding him life imprisonment, which is the minimum punishment that can be awarded to him.

Shivani, who was then principal correspondent with Indian Express, was murdered in her East Delhi apartment on January 23, 1999. The prosecution had claimed that the murder was result of a fall out between Sharma and Shivani, both of whom had developed intimacy, when the latter threatened to expose the former for leaking of sensitive documents from the Prime Minister’s Office.

The court had, however, refused to accept the prosecution’s claim and had observed that it was the fear of his intimacy with the victim getting exposed that led the main accused to decide to eliminate her.

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