Court convicts Romesh Sharma

NEW DELHI: Five years after he was arrested, Romesh Sharma, who allegedly had close links with an underworld gangster, was convicted for the first time on Thursday.
A city court held Sharma guilty under the Excise Act and sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment. But as Sharma had been in jail since his arrest in 1998, his sentence will be considered as undergone.He has to pay Rs 2,000 as fine.
Sharma was arrested on October 20, 1998 by the south Delhi police. The investigations against him started after the police received a complaint from a Mumbai-based businessman claiming that Sharma had forcibly taken possession of his helicopter.
The complainant had also said that Sharma took the helicopter on the pretext of using it for his election campaign. Sharma was planning to contest elections that year.
When the police team reached his residence, 30 Mayfair Garden, they found 50 bottles of foreign liquor from his first floor house. The liquor quantity was 12 litres more than the prescribed limit as per the notification under the Excise Act.
Sharma was not granted bail in this case for more than two years. But even after getting released on bail, Sharma stayed behind bars because he was facing several other cases. Nine witnesses were cross-examined during this trial. And the argument took about two months to be completed.
When Sharma was arrested, he was booked under 14 cases. While he has been convicted in one, he got discharged in three. One case ended in a compromise. His advocate, Ramesh Gupta, said: "The case under the Arms Act is still pending and one is at evidence stage. So is the Kujum Budhiraja murder case."
There is another case in which Sharma has been accused of threatening a person. Gupta said: "While the complainant has died, the case is still dragging."