New Delhi, February 18
A city court today awarded life imprisonment to Romesh Sharma, allegedly associated with Dawood Ibrahim, for hatching a conspiracy to murder his girlfriend, fashion designer Kunjum Budhiraja, on March 20, 1999.
Five others — Sharma’s nephew Surinder Mishra, Hem Chand, Sant Ram, Ramesh and Tejinder Virdi, alias Dolly — were also sentenced to life imprisonment for being involved in the conspiracy over a property dispute.
The court had earlier acquitted another accused, Jaspreet Virdi, as there was no evidence against her.
Sharma is facing trial in 16 other cases, including those of intimidation, property grabbing and cheating. His nephew had taken Kunjum on the pretext of puja to his farmhouse, where she was murdered by a group of hired men from Uttar Pradesh.
After pronouncing the life sentence, the judge imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Sharma, Rs 5,000 on Surinder and Rs 3,000 on the other accused. Sharma and the others had been convicted last week for the murder under Section 302 and Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code.
