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

JUDGES DIFFER ON DEATH SENTENCE

THE fate of self proclaimed godman Swami Shraddhanand, convicted for killing his wife Shakereh in Bangalore, remains uncertain as a two judge bench of the Supreme Court differed on the death sentence awarded to him by the Karnataka High Court.

The Bench of Justices S B Sinha and Markandey Katju referred the case to a larger bench after they differed on the quantum of punishment. Upholding the death sentence given by the High Court, Justice Katju said, "I have confirmed the death sentence." However, Justice Sinha held that the accused deserved life imprisonment instead of death. The Karnataka HC had, in September 2005, found the Swami guilty of burying his wife alive in the backyard of his house and confirmed the death sentence imposed on the 'godman' by the Bangalore sessions court. The deceased Shakereh, grand daughter of the former diwan of the erstwhile state of Mysore Mirza Ismail, had married Shraddhanand in 1986 after she separated from her first husband Akbar K Khaleeli, a former Indian envoy to Iran.

Five years after their marriage, Shakereh went missing and the incident came to light only when her daughter Shabah Khaleeli filed a complaint with the Bangalore police in June 1992. The body of the deceased was later exhumed in the backyard of Shraddhanand's house on March, 30, 1994.