Click to play videoNew Delhi: The prosecution has sought death penalty for senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Ravi Kant Sharma and hired killer Pradeep Sharma in the Shivani Bhatnagar murder case.
However, Additional Sessions Judge Rajendra Kumar Shastri reserved the verdict till March 24 and said that the judgement will be delivered at 1400 hrs.
RK Sharma is the first IPS officer in India held guilty for murder. On Tuesday, a fast-track court in New Delhi had convicted RK Sharma, Pradeep Sharma, Sri Bhagwan and Satya Prakash in the murder case.
The prosecution sought lesser penalty for Sri Bhagwan and Satya Prakash, saying their role in the offence was not direct.
The court had held guilty all the convicts under Section 302 (murder) and 120B (Criminal Conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. The court held 54-year-old Sharma as the main conspirator and Pradeep Sharma as her killer.
Two other accused - Ved Prakash Sharma and Ved alias Kalu - were acquitted for want of evidence.
Shivani Bhatnagar, a principal correspondent with The Indian Express was killed by Pradeep on January 23, 1999, in her east Delhi's Nav Kunj Apartment.
In his over 100-page judgement, Judge Shastri pronounced that there was strong circumstantial evidence that indicated that RK Sharma had conspired with the other convicts to get Shivani killed to end an intimate relationship with her.
Out of the 209 prosecution witnesses, 51 had turned hostile during the prolonged trial. However, the prosecution had successfully managed to establish the chain of circumstantial evidence to achieve conviction in the case almost nine years after the sensational murder.
The prosecution proved that Shivani had first met Sharma when he was the Officer on Special Duty at the Prime Minister's Office during IK Gujral's tenure.
The two later developed an "intimate" relationship and Sharma showed some classified documents to Shivani, including some details of the St Kitts case.
But later, he apparently decided to kill her when she threatened to ruin his career if he did not marry her.
The testimonies of Shivani's sister Sevanti and friend Sejal Shah were instrumental in establishing Sharma's "intimate" relationship with Shivani.
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