This Article is From Jan 11, 2012

Delhi Police appeal against RK Sharma's acquittal in Shivani Bhatnagar case

Delhi Police appeal against RK Sharma's acquittal in Shivani Bhatnagar case
New Delhi: The Delhi Police today filed an appeal in the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court's acquittal of suspended IPS officer RK Sharma in the Shivani Bhatnagar murder case.

The Delhi High Court in October acquitted Mr Sharma and two others in the 1999 murder of journalist Shivani Bhatnagar. It, however, upheld the conviction and life sentence of the fourth accused, Pradeep Sharma, who had killed the scribe.

The senior police officer, who at one time worked in the Prime Minister's Office, was acquitted by the High Court after he appealed against a Delhi court's March 2008 verdict that found him and three others guilty of murdering Shivani Bhatnagar.

The judge in the lower court held that Mr Sharma hired hitmen to murder Shivani Bhatnagar because he was worried that she would go public with details of their relationship. The same judge said that the former police officer did not deserve the death penalty because of his "excellent" service record.

The court had sentenced Mr Sharma, Pradeep Sharma, Bhagwan Sharma and Satya Prakash to life imprisonment. In the High Court, Mr Sharma's lawyer had argued that the evidence against him was largely circumstantial, and had been tampered with by the Delhi Police to implicate him. The police, on the other hand, contended that Mr Sharma used his senior position to influence witnesses and to try and extricate himself from the case.

Shivani Bhatnagar, a senior journalist with the newspaper The Indian Express, was murdered in her east Delhi apartment on January 23, 1999. Her two-month-old son was with her when she was killed. She had reportedly met Mr Sharma while covering the Prime Minister's Office.

Mr Sharma had surrendered to the police in September 2002.
 
.