Tandoor murder: Supreme Court junks Delhi govt’s plea

Youth Congress member Sushil Sharma was convicted of murdering his wife Naina Sahni and later trying to dispose of the body by trying to burn it in a tandoor

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected an appeal filed by the Delhi government, questioning the premature release granted by the Delhi high court to former Youth Congress member Sushil Sharma in the 1995 murder of his wife Naina Sahni.

In 2003, Sushil Sharma was convicted and sentenced to death by a Delhi court, with the punishment upheld by the high court in 2007. However, the Supreme Court in 2013 commuted his death sentence to life in prison. (HT Archive)

Sharma was accused of shooting dead Sahni over suspicions of an extramarital affair, and later trying to dispose of the body by trying to burn it in a tandoor (clay oven). In 2003, he was convicted and sentenced to death by a Delhi court, with the punishment upheld by the high court in 2007. However, the Supreme Court in 2013 commuted his death sentence to life in prison.

In 2018, the high court ordered Sharma’s release, noting that he remained incarcerated for 29 years, including remission, and as per the remission policy in Delhi, murder convicts whose death sentence had been commuted to life would be entitled to premature release after an incarceration of 20 years.

The Delhi government approached the top court more than four years after the release order.

On Wednesday, a bench of justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath asked the Delhi government how the appeal was maintainable. Advocate Chirag Shroff, appearing for the state, said, “The high court could have remanded the matter back to the government for reconsideration. The high court cannot take it up on itself and grant remission.”

The court told Shroff, “This objection cannot lie. We have done it in the Rajiv Gandhi matter.” Justice Gavai was part of the bench which had granted premature release on May 18, 2022 to AG Perarivalan, one of the convicts in the assassination case of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Later last year, a bench headed by him granted remission to remaining six convicts.