Panchkula, August 8
Madhu, wife of Mr Ravi Kant Sharma, IPS, who is the main suspect in the Shivani murder case, today urged the Prime Minister to intervene and transfer the investigation of the case to the CBI so that the complete truth could come out.

Making a statement before newsmen at her residence here, Madhu accused the Delhi police of “designing, hatching and executing” and conspiracy “at the direct instance of the Union Home Ministry” to turn her husband “into a pawn in a hideous power game being played by two sections of the ruling BJP”.

Without naming any BJP leader, Madhu said the Prime Minister should immediately restrain the Home Ministry and the Delhi police because their common objective was to “force my husband to name a particular section of the ruling party”.

Madhu left no one in doubt about whom she was talking when she alleged that “some one very influential and powerful in the Home Ministry” was making the Delhi police to act in “undue haste” as if her husband, posted as I.G., Prisons, Haryana, was a “national threat”. Before the newsmen could put any questions to her, she left the venue along with her daughters, Komal and Pragati, saying that she would not answer any queries.

She went on to claim that the “internal struggle” in the ruling party had led to severe erosion in Constitutional norms and had led to an attack on civil liberties. Though her husband “had been more than cooperative” in the investigation of the over three-year-old case, he had been projected (by the Delhi police) as being non-cooperative. The police was supposed to question a person at his house under Section 161 of the Cr.P.C., Ravi went to Delhi from wherever he was to cooperate with the police.

Strongly denying that her husband had refused to undergo a polygraph test (lie detector test), Madhu said Ravi underwent this test at least twice. Taking a dig at a national daily, she said the newspaper itself reported that Ravi had undergone a lie detector test on May 31, 1999, and now the paper was saying that he never took the test.

Madhu said the police asked her husband to take the test again because “he was not breathing in a particular manner” and the results of the polygraph tests were “inconclusive”. At the request of Ravi, a government-appointed medical board examined him at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital, Delhi, and confirmed that a structural deformity since birth did not allow Ravi to breath in a particular manner. However, despite total cooperation by her husband, the Delhi police kept alleging that he was “feigning illness”.

Coming down heavily on another national daily, Madhu said the newspaper reported last year that the Shivani murder case had been cracked following the arrest of one Ishwar Sharma and that Ravi had ordered the killing of Shivani. However, the then Police Commissioner, Delhi, Mr Ajay Raj Sharma, denied the news report at a press conference the same day. An ACP wrote to the Sharmas that the news report was “bogus”.

Madhu, who broke down twice during the press conference, said last year’s story was being repeated again and there was every possibility of the investigation being messed up because of ulterior motives. She alleged that acting in haste, her husband’s sanctioned leave had been cancelled, a reward had been announced for his arrest and non-bailable warrants had been issued against him as if he was a threat to national security.

She said the entire case against her husband was based on the so-called statements made by a few persons in police custody, which were not admissible as evidence in a court of law. Her husband had not been named in the FIR.

An agitated Madhu said her family was being threatened even before the murder of Shivani. Threats continued even after the murder. She revealed that one of her daughters was kidnapped in Delhi 40 days before Shivani was murdered. A case was registered but no one was arrested by the Delhi police. Though the Sharmas were promised security, the promises remained unfulfilled.

By implication, she suggested that “someone” with a motive to kill Shivani was trying to harm the Sharmas. She apprehended that the next murder could be in her family.

Her daughters also alleged that they were receiving threatening SMS messages and the houses of their friends were being raided by the police.

SHIMLA: The Himachal Pradesh police has scotched all rumours and speculative reports appearing in the media stating that raids were being conducted in the state to arrest Ravi Kant Sharma, IG (Prisons), Haryana, main accused in the Shivani murder case, and said no search could be pursued without any definite clues.

Senior police officers maintained that the Delhi police had not contacted the local police. It was mandatory under the law to inform the state police if an accused was to be arrested in another state.

They also feel that the widespread publicity being given to Sharma’s presence in Himachal Pradesh without any definite clues could infact be a part of the Delhi police strategy to trace him.