Naina Sahni murder case: SC commutes Sushil Sharma's death sentence to life term

The Supreme Court on Tuesday commuted the death sentence of former Youth Congress leader Sushil Sharma to life imprisonment in connection with the 1995 murder of his wife Naina Sahni.

The apex court said Sharma would spend the rest of his life in jail.

A trial court had in 2003 convicted Sharma of shooting Sahni on July 2, 1995, in a fit of rage at their home in central Delhi, on the suspicion of infidelity.

Sharma and his friend were also found guilty of chopping up the body and trying to burn it in a tandoor - or an open oven - in a popular restaurant in Central Delhi.

The crime was detected when the smoke from the tandoor alerted cops patrolling the area.

In 2007, the Delhi High Court upheld Sharma's death sentence, after which he appealed to the apex court. In his appeal, Sharma also claimed that his offence of killing his wife and disposing of her body in a tandoor did not fall under the "rarest of rare" cases to warrant a death sentence.

Sharma has been lodged in Tihar Jail since 2004.