By IANS,
New Delhi : Observing that the evidence brought before it was not convincing, the Delhi High Court Wednesday acquitted former police officer R.K. Sharma, the main accused in the murder of journalist Shivani Bhatnagar, along with two other co-accused.
“The quality of evidence before us is not of a high calibre,” said the division bench of Justice B.D. Ahmed and Justice Manmohan Singh while acquitting Sharma along with Sri Bhagwan and Satya Prakash.
The three were sentenced to life by a trial court.
However, the life sentence of another accused, Pradeep Sharma, was upheld by the bench.
“Judges, like other human beings, also have suspicions but judges, unlike others who are free to arrive at their own conclusions, cannot and do not convict on the basis of mere suspicion. The prosecution has to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt,” the court said.
“We are afraid that the prosecution, in our view, has failed to do so insofar as appellants R.K. Sharma, Sri Bhagwan Sharma and Satya Prakash are concerned. The prosecution, however, succeeded in proving its case insofar as Pradeep Sharma is concerned,” the court said in its 84-page judgment delivered nearly after 10 months of reserving the order.
The court’s order comes as a big relief for R.K. Sharma, who was languishing in jail for nearly over eight years.
Shivani, a journalist with the Indian Express, was murdered at her Navkunj Apartments flat at I.P. Extension in east Delhi Jan 23, 1999.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Police’s standing counsel Pawan Sharma said: “We will examine the judgment and will accordingly appeal in the Supreme Court.”