HC seeks LG, govt reply on Sharma's plea for premature release

The Delhi High Court today sought responses from the Lieutenant Governor and Delhi government on a plea of former youth Congress leader Sushil Sharma, serving life term for the murder of his wife Naina Sahni, seeking remission and premature release from jail.
Justice Siddharth Mridul asked the authorities concerned to make their stand clear by September 15 whether they are considering Sharma's plea.
The case is popularly known as tandoor murder case as after killing the victim, her body was burnt in an oven to destroy the evidence.
Sharma, who is now out on parole on the ground of his mother's ailment, has moved the court stating that he has already spent over 20 years in jail and is thus entitled to premature release in accordance with the guidelines of the Sentence Review Board.

In his plea moved through advocate Sumeet Verma, he has sought directions to the LG and Delhi government to expeditiously consider his plea for premature release from jail.
While commuting to life imprisonment the death penalty awarded to him, the Supreme Court had said that "life sentence is for the whole of remaining life of Sharma subject to the remission granted by the appropriate government under the Code of Criminal Procedure."

The apex court had reduced the punishment, awarded to Sharma by a trial court in 2003 and upheld by the Delhi High Court in 2007, saying the murder was the outcome of "strained personal relationship" and the convict who spent "10 years in death cell" was "not a confirmed criminal".

Therefore, it is not possible in the facts of the case to say that there is no chance of the appellant being reformed and rehabilitated, the apex court had said.
It had also said that Sharma was not completely remorseless as he had wept when shown his wife's body.
Sharma was convicted of murdering his wife Naina whom he suspected of infidelity.
He shot her with his licensed revolver on July 2, 1995, took her body to a restaurant, chopped it into pieces and tied to burn it in the restaurant's oven.