INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - APRIL - MAY 2007
The Month that was ...

SUPREME COURT ADMITS SUSHIL SHARMA'S PLEA

THE SUPREME Court on May 7 stayed the death sentence of former youth Congress leader Sushil Sharma, convicted in the sensational Naina Sahni murder case and admitted his appeal seeking quashing of the capital punishment.

A bench comprising Justice S B Sinha and Justice Markandeya Katju, referred to a three-judge bench further hearing of the appeal in which Sharma had also claimed that his offence of killing the woman and disposing of her body in a tandoor did not fall under the 'rarest of rare' cases to warrant a death sentence.

The Delhi high court had on February 19 confirmed the death sentence imposed on Sharma by a sessions court for killing his wife Naina Sahni and attempting to dispose of her body by burning it in the tandoor in his restaurant in 1995. The gruesome murder was committed by the accused who suspected his wife Naina Sahni of infidelity.

In his appeal filed through counsel Sumitra Kapil has challenged the death sentence imposed on the ground that the entire conviction was based on circumstantial evidence and there were no eye witnesses.

He submitted that there were not eye witnesses either to the alleged murder or to substantiate the allegation that he tried to dispose of the body in a tandoor.

Sharma alleged that his conviction was not based on evidence but due to "media trial" and the death sentence imposed on him was erroneous.

The accused had claimed that the murder was not "diabolic" or "gruesome" to fit the requirement of the "rarest of rare" category necessary for imposing death sentence on a person.

The appeal said that even according to the prosecution, the victim died due to a gun shot fired by the accused and such killing cannot be attributed to the 'rarest of rare' category.

A division bench of the Delhi high court comprising Justices R S Sodhi and P K Bhasin had on February 19 confirmed the death sentence on Sharma after holding that the offence was "an act of extreme depravity" which shook the conscience of the entire society.

Justifying the reasoning given by the trial court for awarding him the death sentence, the bench had maintained that the case fell in the rarest of rare category and Sharma did not deserve any mercy for the gruesome killing of his wife.

"The gruesome manner in which Sharma had killed Naina Sahni and dealt with her body must have shocked the conscience of the community, and we unhesitatingly say his abhorrent act has definitely shocked our judicial conscience also," the bench had said.

The high court rejecting Sharma's plea for reducing the death sentence into life imprisonment had observed "People like Sharma who are power drunk and have no value for human life are definitely a menace for society at large and deserve no mercy. In such circumstances, no other punishment except the death penalty would be justified."