Prosecution seeks death for R K Sharma

NEW DELHI: The prosecution today demanded before a Delhi court that senior IPS officer R K Sharma and the hired killer Pradeep Sharma be awarded capital punishment in the sensational Shivani Bhatnagar murder case. "There are two categories of the convicts in the case. R K Sharma and hired criminal Pradeep had played more active role than the other two convicts," special public prosecutor S K Saxena said, while seeking gallows for them.

Citing various apex court judgement, Saxena said that the duo played "more pivotal role" in the commission of the offence as the convicted IPS officer had all the intentions to kill the "defenceless journalist" while the other convict was a "cold-blooded murderer", who eliminated Bhatnagar just for money.

"The other two convicts -- Satya Prakash and Sri Bhagwan -- though convicted under the same provisions of the law, had played a lesser role," he said during the arguments on quantum of sentence before Additional Sessions Judge Rajender Kumar Shastri.

Elaborating on the role of Pradeep, the prosecutor submitted that the convict first got acquainted with the deceased scribe and went to her flat and killed her. She was unaware of his "nefarious" intention, he said. The court had on March 18 convicted four persons including Sharma for criminal conspiracy and murder, holding him as the "main conspirator" in the case. Bhatnagar, the scribe with The Indian Express, was killed in her East Delhi apartment on January 23, 1999.