Kunjum murder case: Romesh, other accused get life behind bars

NEW DELHI: Two days after convicting him for plotting to kill his fashion designer girlfriend, Kunjum Budhraj, a trial court on Monday awarded a life term to former Congressman and alleged Dawood aide, Romesh Sharma, and five of his associates.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Sharma, who along with nephew, Surinder Mishra, a close associate, Tejinder Virdi alias Dolly, and three others were held guilty of hatching a criminal conspiracy to murder Kunjum.The other three convicts ��� Hem Chand, Sant Ram and Ramesh ��� had been roped in to execute the plan. Jaspreet Virdi alias Sonu, the sister of Dolly, was acquitted for want of evidence.
In the sentence, additional sessions judge S P Garg imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 each on Mishra and Dolly and Rs 1,000 each on the three hired assasins, although it didn't impose any additional penalty for the offence of criminal conspiracy as it held that "they have already been sentenced for major offences under section 302 (murder) and 34 (common intent)" of the IPC.
Indicting Sharma for his machinations against a woman who was clearly devoted to him, ASJ Garg said: "The offence committed by the convicts is highly shocking and atrocious. Romesh Sharma exploited the innocence of an unsuspecting victim who used to have deovtion, love and affection for him and used to pray for his early release." It added:"The court can well understand the trauma of parents and other relations of the deceased whose life was cut short by the convicts. On that account, convicts deserved no leniency."
Earlier, prosecutor S K Saxena had asked the court to impose death penalty on Sharma for being the main conspirator and for financing the murder of Kunjum by hiring the three killers. The court, however, rejected the plea and held that it was not a case to impose maximum punishment of death. "I am of the considered view that it is not one of the rarest of rare cases where extreme penalty of death is to be awarded to any of the convicts," the court said.
Refusing to buy the prosecution's call for a death penalty, ASJ Garg pointed out that the case of the prosecution was based on circumstantial evidence, and as per a Supreme court judgment, death penalty could not be imposed in such cases. Mitigating circumstances like the age of the convicts, the period of their detention in jail and the fact that none of the accused has been held guilty in any earlier offences ��� the ASJ held ��� went in favour of the convicts. "None of the convicts is involved in any other organised criminal activity...in my view the ends of justice would be met if they are all sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life with a reasonable fine."
Kunjum was murdered on March 20, 1999. Though the incident occured while Sharma was in prison on other charges, the court agreed with the prosecution, that Sharma along with his nephew and Dolly hatched a criminal conspiracy to murder Kunjum.
shriharsha.k@timesgroup.com