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Romesh Sharma sentenced to life in Kunjum murder case

NEW DELHI: Romesh Sharma, alleged aide of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim who was convicted in the murder of his girl-friend Kunjum Budhiraja, was sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment by a city court here on Monday.

The five other accused in the case — Sharma’s nephew Surinder Mishra, woman convict Tejinder Virdi alias Dolly and hired killers Hemchand, Santram and Ramesh — were also sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment.

Pronouncing the sentence, Additional Sessions Judge S.P. Garg also slapped fines of Rs.50,000 on Sharma, Rs.5,000 each on Mishra and Dolly and Rs.1,000 each on Hemchand, Santram and Ramesh. The court said the prosecution’s case revealed a “pathetic, chilling and sinister design where an innocent life was eliminated.”

The court had convicted all the six accused for murder and criminal conspiracy last Friday. One of the accused, Jaspreet Virdi alias Sonu, had been acquitted for lack of evidence.

While the key witness in the case Ram Achal Tiwari had turned hostile, the court relied on circumstantial and forensic evidence to arrive at the verdict. The court said circumstantial evidence did not point to any other hypothesis except towards the guilt of the accused persons.

Sharma said he would appeal against the conviction in the Delhi High Court. In its charge sheet, the Delhi police had named 10 persons for the murder of Kunjum Budhiraja on March 20, 1999.

As per prosecution, Sharma had hatched the conspiracy to kill Kunjum while he was lodged at Tihar Central Jail in connection with other cases. At Sharma’s behest, his nephew had taken Kunjum, a fashion designer, to his uncle’s “Jai Mata Di” farmhouse at Mehrauli in South Delhi ostensibly to perform “puja” on the occasion of “Navaratri.”

The hired killers were allegedly present at the farmhouse and stabbed Kunjum to death when she reached there.

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