Opinion July 27, Forty Years Ago: Capital Murder

A look at the front page of The Indian Express, published on July 27, Forty Years Ago.

The verdict on a sensational murder in Delhi dominated the frontpage. A noted eye surgeon, N.S. Jain, his former secretary Chandresh Sharma, and five others were sentenced to life for the murder of Vidya Jain, N.S. Jain’s wife. The court described the murder as “cool and calculated” and said the prosecution could establish the motive for the murder, as N.S. Jain and Mrs Sharma were in “deep intimacy”. Vidya Jain was murdered outside her Defence Colony house on December 4, 1973. The post-mortem report counted 14 stab wounds on the body. A large crowd had jammed the staircase and corridor outside the court room to hear the verdict.

Misa Arrest
A report mentioned the arrest of a “former ruler of a princely state” under Misa, following the recovery of a high-power wireless transmitter and two receiving sets from the banks of the river Lodri, near Dewas. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister P.C. Sethi told the media that the former ruler was a former Jana Sangh MLA. Sethi claimed the transmitter was of foreign make and had the capacity to transmit and receive messages from any part of the world.

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Land For Peace
Israel had no intention of returning land to the Arabs unless it got peace in return, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said in Tel Aviv. “We have no desire of vacating Sinai in order to capture it a fourth time,” he said.

General Rule
A troika of generals were to run Portugal. The three generals in whom all the political and military power would be vested were President Da Costa Gomes, Prime Minister Vasco Goncalves and commander of the special internal security force, General Otelo de Carvalho. They would take away all decision-making powers from the Supreme Revolutionary Council that had been governing the country since the ouster of General Spinola.