New Delhi, March 24
A Delhi fast track court today awarded life imprisonment to suspended IPS officer R.K. Sharma in the sensational Shivani Bhatnagar murder case, saying he did not deserve the death penalty due to his excellent service record. Three other convicts were also sentenced to life imprisonment for the journalist’s gruesome murder, whose trial formally ended today in a rare verdict against an inspector general-rank officer.
Additional Sessions Judge Rajender
Kumar Shastri, while disallowing the prosecution’s plea that the convicts be sent to the gallows, said, “R.K. Sharma has got an excellent service record as a police officer and the extreme penalty was not needed in this case.” Pronouncing the quantum of sentence in a packed court room, the Judge added, “Moreover, the convict Sharma has no previous criminal history.”
Besides Sharma, his three accomplices, who actually carried out the murder, Pradeep Sharma, Sri Bhagwan and Satya Prakash, have also been sentenced to life imprisonment.
Apart from the jail sentence in the nine-year-old murder case, the court also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on R.K. Sharma and Rs 10,000 each on the other three accused.
Sharma, a 1976-batch IPS officer, along with three others, was convicted on March 18 for plotting Shivani’s murder in her east Delhi apartment on January 23, 1999.
