New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Wednesday acquitted Romesh Sharma, an alleged associate of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, and his accomplice in the 1999 murder of fashion designer Kunjum Budhiraja while upholding life term to four others in the case.
A division bench of Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Suresh Kait acquitted Sharma and Dolly of all charges while upholding the life imprisonment to four others involved — Surinder Mishra, Hemchand, Santram and Ramesh.

Kunjum was murdered Mar 20, 1999. According to the prosecution, Kunjum was murdered by people engaged by Mishra at Sharma’s farmhouse near here when she visited it.

Sharma has been in judicial custody since 1999 and is facing trial in as many as 16 criminal cases.

“We hold that far from motive being established as alleged by the prosecution, the reverse stands established, i.e. that Romesh Sharma and Kunjum were in love and desired the company of each other. It does not establish that Romesh Sharma had got fed up with Kunjum,” the bench noted in its judgement while acquitting him.

Pulling up the trial court judge for commenting on the funeral of Kunjum, the bench said: “A grieving lover falling over the dead body of his mate and performing the ritual of a marriage can well be an expression of last love and need not necessarily be a drama.”

On Feb 18, a city court had awarded life term to Sharma and five others for conspiring to murder his fashion designer girlfriend Kunjum Budhiraja.

Besides Sharma, the city court awarded life sentences to other convicts as well, including his nephew Surinder Mishra, Hemchand, Santram, Ramesh and Tejinder Virdi alias Dolly.

During the investigation, it was reportedly found that Surinder Mishra, Dolly and Sonu wanted to get rid of Kunjum as they felt that while they were taking care of Sharma and attending to his court cases, he was apparently giving away his property to Kunjum.