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Sharma’s sentence reserved
Tribune News Service
Former IPS Officer R.K. Sharma comes out of the Karkardooma Court in New Delhi on Thursday after attending the proceedings. The court reserved its order on the quantum of sentence against him till March 24.
— A Tribune photograph |
New Delhi, March 20
A Delhi court today reserved its order on the quantum of sentence against convicted IPS officer R.K. Sharma in the Shivani Bhatnagar murder case for March 24 even as the prosecution sought death penalty for him. Additional sessions judge Rajender Kumar Shastri said he would pronounce the punishment against Sharma and three other convicts on Monday after the prosecution and the defence completed their arguments on sentence. Earlier starting the day’s proceedings in a packed court room, special public prosecutor S.K. Saxena sought the gallows for the Haryana cadre IPS officer and hired killer Pradeep Sharma for the nine-year-old incident. R.K. Sharma, a 1976-batch IPS officer, along with Pradeep Sharma, Sri Bhagwan and Satya Prakash was convicted on March 18 for plotting journalist Shivani’s murder in her east Delhi apartment on January 23, 1999. A pensive-looking Sharma stood in the dock for about 20 minutes during the proceedings and then sought the court’s permission to sit on a chair due to his back ailment. For the next two hours, he shut his eyes and buried himself in the chair to hear the arguments. Opposing the prosecution’s plea seeking death penalty for Sharma, his counsel S.P. Minocha said that just because a journalist was allegedly killed by an IPS officer, it did not constitute an offence falling under the rarest of rare category calling for the maximum punishment. Referring to media reports on the verdict related to the defence allegedly casting aspersions on Shivani’s character, he said it was the prosecution claim that Sharma got the journalist killed because he wanted to walk out of their intimate relationship. Shivani’s threat to expose Sharma goes in his favour, the counsel maintained.
Hostile key witness Kukreja faces action
New Delhi, March 20
Suresh Kukreja, a key witness in Shivani Bhatnagar murder case who turned hostile, shall face criminal proceedings for giving false evidence allegedly for helping his friend and convict IPS officer R.K. Sharma. Kukreja (50), a Delhi-based businessman, retracted from his alleged statement, given to the police, that Sharma used his mobile number to remain in touch with the killer and
other convicts involved in the murder on the day of the incident. “It appears that Kukreja deliberately told a lie before the court. Same is an offence punishable under Section 181 (false statement on oath) and 193 (false evidence) of the IPC,” Additional Sessions Judge Rajender Kumar Shastri said in his verdict delivered on March 18. The court while directing initiation of criminal proceedings against Kukreja said a complaint was being lodged with the concerned court. According to the prosecution, on the day of Shivani’s murder the IPS officer was in Pune and he used Kukreja’s mobile number to co-ordinate the moves of the hired killer and other convicts. Kukreja had allegedly admitted this fact before the police during investigation, but later landed the prosecution into trouble by retracting from his earlier statement. Following this, the prosecution declared him hostile. He was one of the 51 hostile witnesses, out of 209 witnesses who deposed in the case. However, his flip-flop proved the most glaring as the court has made critical remarks only against him in his judgement and ordered action against him.
— PTI
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