3 women, jealousy and lust for power

Rahul Chhabra / TNN / Dec 22, 2006, 00:06 IST

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Former Trinagar councillor Atma Ram Gupta's killing was a crime of passion, driven by prime accused Sharda Jain's hunger for political power.

NEW DELHI: Former Trinagar councillor Atma Ram Gupta's killing was a crime of passion, driven by prime accused Sharda Jain's hunger for political power and jealousy for a fellow councillor, said additional sessions judge Bharat Parashar, delving into the complex relationships which led to the crime.
The 93-page judgment, apart from shedding light on Gupta's character, also talks about his relationship with three women.
Sharda Jain: Gupta's disgruntled ex-lover, the woman behind the murder, who once tried to commit suicide to prove her love for him. She was hospitalised after the suicide attempt in October 2000.
Memwati Barwala: The other woman in the triangle whose growing proximity to Gupta enraged Sharda to such an extent that she decided to get him eliminated.

Sumitra Gupta: Gupta's wife who tried to cover up her husband's relationships by maintaining right through the trial that her husband had never been unfaithful to her.
The court refused to go into the nature of Gupta's relationship with Memwati but admitted the prosecution theory — based on Jain's self-confessed love for Gupta.
However, the claims made by Gupta's wife about his faithfulness towards her were brushed aside as attempts to cover up Gupta's penchant for illicit relations.

The motive ascribed to the murder by the prosecution was the love of Sharda Jain for Atma Ram Gupta and also her love for power besides jealousy towards fellow-councillor Memwati Barwala. In other words, a feeling of insecurity in her about her love for Atma Ram Gupta and her political career.
"I am of the considered opinion that the prosecution has been more than successful in proving that accused Sharda Jain had a liking for Atma Ram Gupta and on account of her close association with him she also tasted the fruit of power,"said the judge.
Hinting at the wide difference between Gupta's public life and love life, the court said: "As is usually seen, public leaders, as the accused Sharda Jain or the deceased Gupta were, walk on the thin line of public opinion and, that too, with a great degree of sense of insecurity."
On the prosecution's claim about the insecurity felt by Jain from Gupta's growing proximity to Barwala, the court said: "It is certainly not a far-fetched argument that accused Sharda Jain must have felt insecure on account of the liking shown by Atma Ram Gupta towards some other lady councillor (Memwati)."
Giving little weightage to the testimony made by Gupta's wife, Sumitra Gupta, claiming that her husband was faithful to her, the court said: "It does not hold much water. Firstly, no lady would like to admit such kind of conduct of her husband in public..more so, when her husband is no more in the world."
"Certainly Atma Ram Gupta was a man living his life in public (gaze) and an admission by any of his family member in this regard would have certainly brought disrepute not only to the name of the deceased but also to the present family members,"the court said.

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