SC to deliver verdict in ‘Tandoor’ case today
8 Oct 2013 11:59 PM IST
The Supreme Court will on Tuesday deliver its verdict on a plea filed by jailed former Youth Congress leader Sushil Sharma, challenging his conviction and death sentence in the 1995 Naina Sahni murder case.
The fate of Sharma will be decided by a bench headed by chief justice P Sathasivam, which had reserved its verdict on 13 August.
During the hearing in the infamous ‘tandoor’ case, Sharma’s counsel pleaded the case did not fall in the rarest of rare category warranting capital punishment.
Sharma had submitted to the court that the conviction was entirely based on circumstantial evidence and the death penalty cannot be awarded to the convict.
However, the prosecution said the case falls in the category of the rarest of rare and the trial court and the Delhi high court were justified in awarding death sentence.
The arguments before the bench had commenced five years after Sharma filed the appeal against the Delhi high court judgment confirming the conviction and death penalty awarded to him for murdering his wife Naina, on suspicion that she was having an extra-marital affair.
Sharma was convicted for murdering his wife and then disposing her body by burning it in a tandoor.
Sharma has in his petition filed in 2007 contended the high court had erroneously concluded that the offence committed by him falls under the rarest of rare category, warranting capital punishment.
The high court had on 19 February, 2007 confirmed the death penalty awarded to him by the trial court saying the offence was an act of extreme depravity that shook the conscience of the society.
It had held the reasoning given by the trial court for convicting and awarding death sentence to Sharma in the case was justified and he did not deserve any mercy for the gruesome killing.
The high court had rejected the mercy plea of reducing the death sentence into life imprisonment for Sharma. It had rejected his contention that the offence was committed on the spur of moment.
The trial court had on 7 November, 2003 sentenced Sharma to death for killing his wife at their residence in Gole Market area of central Delhi on the intervening night of 2-3 July, 1995.
The fate of Sharma will be decided by a bench headed by chief justice P Sathasivam, which had reserved its verdict on 13 August.
During the hearing in the infamous ‘tandoor’ case, Sharma’s counsel pleaded the case did not fall in the rarest of rare category warranting capital punishment.
Sharma had submitted to the court that the conviction was entirely based on circumstantial evidence and the death penalty cannot be awarded to the convict.
However, the prosecution said the case falls in the category of the rarest of rare and the trial court and the Delhi high court were justified in awarding death sentence.
The arguments before the bench had commenced five years after Sharma filed the appeal against the Delhi high court judgment confirming the conviction and death penalty awarded to him for murdering his wife Naina, on suspicion that she was having an extra-marital affair.
Sharma was convicted for murdering his wife and then disposing her body by burning it in a tandoor.
Sharma has in his petition filed in 2007 contended the high court had erroneously concluded that the offence committed by him falls under the rarest of rare category, warranting capital punishment.
The high court had on 19 February, 2007 confirmed the death penalty awarded to him by the trial court saying the offence was an act of extreme depravity that shook the conscience of the society.
It had held the reasoning given by the trial court for convicting and awarding death sentence to Sharma in the case was justified and he did not deserve any mercy for the gruesome killing.
The high court had rejected the mercy plea of reducing the death sentence into life imprisonment for Sharma. It had rejected his contention that the offence was committed on the spur of moment.
The trial court had on 7 November, 2003 sentenced Sharma to death for killing his wife at their residence in Gole Market area of central Delhi on the intervening night of 2-3 July, 1995.
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