The Supreme Court on Tuesday imposed life imprisonment on self-proclaimed godman 'Swami' Shraddananda, who had buried his wife Shakereh alive in their Bangalore house to usurp her massive property. A three-judge Bench of Justice B N Aggarwal, G S Singhvi and Aftab Alam ruled that Shraddananda would remain in jail for the rest of his life. The three-judge Bench delivered its verdict on the quantum of punishment after a two-judge Bench of Justice S B Sinha and Markandey Katju had delivered a split verdict on May 18 2007. While Justice Katju had said that the case fell under the definition of ‘rarest of rare’ offences warranting capital punishment, Justice Sinha had ruled that the accused deserved life imprisonment. Following the split verdict, the Chief Justice had referred the issue to a larger Bench.
