New Delhi: Ashok Road of Delhi, where strange silence prevails at night. There is movement in this place during the day, but very few people are seen here at night. The road surrounded by trees becomes deserted. Only a few vehicles are seen. Street lights also make the darkness more scary. At 11 o'clock in the night, smoke was seen rising from a restaurant. But at that time people did not notice it. Then suddenly, a woman selling vegetables screams. A police constable comes there after hearing her voice. He reached the restaurant to know the reason of smoke and fire. The scene he saw there shook the whole city the next day. Actually, a dead body was being burnt in the tandoor of the restaurant.
The killer was putting butter in the tandoor...
Actually, to dispose of the body quickly, the killer was putting butter in the tandoor so that the dead body would burn. This caused strong flames to rise in the tandoor which were visible even outside. This is the story of the murder of 29-year-old Naina Sahni. It was a gruesome murder. The post-mortem report further complicated the case. The post-mortem report was telling different things. This made it more difficult to know the truth. The police was now investigating the case in depth.
The police launched a search operation
The police launched a search operation to find Naina's husband Sushil Sharma. Sushil Sharma was the former president of Delhi Youth Congress (I). He was the main accused in this case. Nine days later, he surrendered in Bengaluru. He had shaved his head to escape. Sushil Sharma said that he did not know anything about the murder. Later he called the case a political conspiracy. He kept changing his tactics during police interrogation.
Suspected wife's friendship, shot her
This incident is of 2 July 1995. Sushil Sharma did not like his wife Naina Sahni's friendship with Matloob Karim. Matloob and Naina were classmates. Both of them were also Congress workers. Sushil suspected that Naina was having an affair with Matloob. On the night of 2 July 1995, Sushil came home. He saw Naina talking on the phone. Seeing Sushil, Naina disconnected the call. When Sushil called back, Matloob was on the other end. This made Sushil very angry and he shot Naina, which led to her death.
The body had to be disposed of...what could he do?
Sushil took Naina's body to a restaurant named Bagiya. He tried to dispose of the body with the help of the restaurant manager Keshav Kumar. An attempt was made to burn the body by putting it in a tandoor. Butter was put in the body to burn it quickly. But due to the flames rising from the tandoor, the police caught Keshav Kumar, but Sushil Sharma managed to escape. He surrendered on 10 July 1995.
Friend identified the body by giving the ring
Initially, the police had a lot of difficulty in identifying the body. But after watching the news on TV, Naina's friend Matloob got suspicious. The next day he went to identify the body, but he too could not identify the body. However, while leaving in the end, he saw the ring on the hand of the dead body, which made him sure that this body was of Naina. After this, the police launched a campaign to catch Sushil Sharma.
Mystery solved by postmortem
However, the first postmortem was done at Lady Harding Medical College. The doctors said that the death was due to burning. But seeing the seriousness of the case, the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi ordered a second postmortem. This postmortem was done by a team of doctors from three different hospitals. The team was headed by T.D. Dogra. They found two bullets in the head and neck. Doctors said that the death was due to gunshot wounds. This changed the direction of the investigation and the real story came out.
The Delhi Police investigated the case and filed a chargesheet in the Sessions Court on 27 July 1995. On 7 November 2003, Sushil Sharma was sentenced to death. The restaurant manager Keshav Kumar was sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment. Sushil Sharma appealed to the Delhi High Court against the District Court's verdict. The court upheld the lower court's decision. In 2003, the lower court sentenced him to death, which was later upheld by the Delhi High Court in 2007. In 2013, the SC commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment, saying there was "no evidence" of Sharma dismembering his wife's body.
What is going on in the case now?
On 8 October 2013, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justices Ranjan Desai and Ranjan Gogoi, upheld Sharma's conviction. However, the court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment as Sharma has no criminal history and it was not a crime against society but the crime was committed by the accused due to a strained personal relationship with his wife. On 21 December 2018, the Delhi High Court ordered the immediate release of Sushil Sharma. He came out of jail in December 2018. He had spent almost 23 years in jail.
