2 min readNew DelhiOct 13, 2011 02:39 AM IST
First published on: Oct 13, 2011 at 02:39 AM IST
The Delhi High Court’s verdict in Shivani Bhatnagar’s murder case on Wednesday spelt relief not only for former IPS officer R K Sharma and two co-convicts who had been sentenced to life term by the trial court,but also for two others,whose fate had been hanging in balance after the Delhi Police challenged their acquittal by the lower court.
Ved Prakash Sharma and Ved Prakash alias Kalu must have breathed a sigh of relief when a bench of Justices B D Ahmed and Manmohan Singh straightaway dismissed the appeal by the prosecution against the favourable order by the trial court in March 2008.
The bench held that there was not even an iota of evidence on record to involve them into the discussion on the alleged conspiracy for Bhatnagar’s murder.
“We may say straightaway that insofar as the state appeals in respect of Ved Prakash Sharma and Ved Prakash alias Kalu are concerned,the same are liable to be dismissed. The trial court has not committed any error in acquitting them,” the bench said.
According to the prosecution,the duo had to be implicated on the basis of the recovery of a gold chain that belonging to the journalist,at the instance of Ved Prakash Sharma and a camera,with the letters RB engraved on it,at the instance of Kalu. Both these items were allegedly removed by Pradeep Sharma from the scene of crime and handed over to them.
“The trial court has disbelieved the alleged recoveries and from the evidence on record,there is no reason for us to disagree with the finding…. The trial court has rightly acquitted them,” the bench said.
In the trial court,Additional Sessions Judge R K Shastri had thrown out the recovery of the impugned items on the basis of the disclosure statements of the two,after finding the police version unreliable that the chain was recovered by the police in 2002,three years after the incident,from a cupboard in Ved Prakash Sharma’s house.
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