Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 12 (IANS) Three years after he was convicted in the 1999 murder of Indian Express journalist Shivani Bhatnagar, former police officer R.K. Sharma Wednesday walked out of the Tihar Jail after the Delhi High Court acquitted him and two other co-accused because the evidence against them was “not convincing enough”.

“The quality of evidence before us is not of a high calibre,” said the division bench of Justice B.D. Ahmed and Justice Manmohan Singh while acquitting former Indian Police Service officer R.K. Sharma along with co-accused Sri Bhagwan Sharma and Satya Prakash.

The high court upheld the life sentence of the fourth convict, Pradeep Sharma. “Although the motive behind Pradeep Sharma killing Shivani Bhatnagar is unclear and has not been established, we have already found, on the basis of other overwhelming scientific and circumstantial evidence, that he was the person who killed her,” the court said.

The trial court had March 24, 2008, convicted the four of the murder and acquitted co-accused Dev Prakash Sharma and Ved alias Kalu.

The four convicts, sentenced to life terms, appealed against the verdict before the high court, which reserved its verdict Dec 21 last year.

“The three appellants, R.K. Sharma, Sri Bhagwan Sharma and Satya Prakash, get the benefit of doubt and they stand acquitted of all charges,” said the high court.

While acquitting the three, the high court said: “Judges, like other human beings, also have suspicions but judges, unlike others who are free to arrive at their own conclusions, cannot and do not convict on the basis of mere suspicion. The prosecution has to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.”

“We are afraid that the prosecution, in our view, has failed to do so insofar as appellants R.K. Sharma, Sri Bhagwan Sharma and Satya Prakash are concerned. The prosecution, however, succeeded in proving its case insofar as Pradeep Sharma is concerned,” the court said in its 84-page judgment delivered nearly after 10 months of reserving the order.

“Pradeep Sharma’s conviction under section 302 Indian Penal Code (murder) stands confirmed and so does the sentence awarded to him,” said the bench.

The court’s order came as a big relief for R.K. Sharma, who was languishing in jail for nearly over eight years.

The three walked free from Tihar jail late Wednesday night. “After procedure, all of them left the jail premises around 8.40 p.m.,” Tihar spokesperson Sunil Gupta told IANS.

Shivani, a journalist with the Indian Express, was murdered at her Navkunj Apartments flat at I.P. Extension in east Delhi Jan 23, 1999.

Seeking R.K. Sharma’s acquittal, his counsel said there were several missing links in the chain of events, including the phone call records, and the record was tampered with to implicate him. Sharma had once served as officer on special duty in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Defence counsel cited lacunae in the transcript of the mobile phone calls between his client and other accomplices to substantiate his allegation that police fabricated the call records.

Delhi Police counsel Pawan Sharma countered the defence submission by saying that the accused was holding a high position and influenced witnesses, 43 of whom turned hostile during the trial.

After the verdict, Pawan Sharma said: “We will examine the judgment and will accordingly appeal in the Supreme Court.”

According to the prosecution, R.K. Sharma had provided certain classified documents to Shivani that led to her murder as the journalist wanted to make the documents public.