A Delhi court reserved its order on the quantum of sentence against convicted IPS officer R K Sharma in the Shivani Bhatnagar murder case
NEW DELHI: A Delhi court reserved its order on the quantum of sentence against convicted IPS officer R K Sharma in the Shivani Bhatnagar murder case till March 24 even as the prosecution sought death penalty for him.
Additional Sessions Judge Rajender Kumar Shastri said he would pronounce the punishment against Sharma and three other convicts next week, after the prosecution and the defence completed their arguments on sentence.
Earlier starting the day's proceedings in a packed court room, the special public prosecutor S K Saxena sought the gallows for the Haryana cadre IPS officer and the hired "killer" Pradeep Sharma for the nine-year-old incident.
Sharma, a 1976-batch IPS officer, along with three others -- Pradeep Sharma, Sri Bhagwan and Satya Prakash -- was convicted on March 18 for plotting journalist Shivani's murder in her east Delhi apartment on January 23, 1999.
A pensive-looking Sharma stood in the dock for about 20 minutes during the proceedings and then sought the court's permission to sit on a chair due to his back ailment.
For the next two hours, he shut his eyes and buried himself in the chair to hear the arguments.
Opposing the prosecution's plea seeking death penalty for Sharma, his counsel S P Minocha said "Just because, a journalist was allegedly killed by an IPS officer, it does not constitute an offence falling under the rarest of rare category calling for the maximum punishment."
Referring to media reports on the verdict related to the defence allegedly casting aspersions on Shivani's character, he said, "It was the prosecution claim that Sharma got the journalist killed because he wanted to walk out of their intimate relationship."
Shivani's threat to expose Sharma goes in his favour, the counsel said.
Opposing prosecution's plea for awarding capital punishment to R K Sharma, his counsel Minocha said "It was a simple case of murder involving Sharma as an individual and the plea of death sentence should not be entertained on the ground that he was a senior police officer."
He should not be given the extreme penalty in view of his excellent service record, Minocha added.
Sharma's counsel also expressed his anguish over the alleged leak of a part of the judgement to the media claiming it was the convicts' right to get the first copy of the verdict.
"Throughout the trial, we have maintained that the convict only had a professional relationship with the deceased," he said.
Counsel for other convicts also pleaded for leniency saying that the case did not fall under the rarest of rare category.
The court, after hearing the two-hour-long argument deferred till March 24 the pronouncement of sentence against the convicts which may range from life imprisonment to the death penalty.
Sharma then sought the court's permission for consulting his counsel inside the courtroom, which was granted.
The prosecution, earlier, sought death penalty for the IPS officer and hired killer Pradeep Sharma.
The duo played a "pivotal role" in the commission of the offence, special public prosecutor S K Saxena said, adding that the convicted IPS officer had all the intentions to kill the "defenceless journalist" while the other convict was a "cold-blooded murderer", who killed Bhatnagar for money.
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