New Delhi: Sushil Kumar Sharma, serving life term for the murder of his wife Naina Sahni in 1995 and burning the body in a tandoor, today withdrew his plea from the Delhi High Court seeking three months parole for attending his ailing mother.
Justice Pratibha Rani allowed Sharma's counsel to take back his plea after Saleem Ahmed, appearing for Delhi Police, opposed it saying that he has recently been out on furlough. Ahmed said the convict has been granted parole earlier also.
Sharma, who was a Congress leader at the time of arrest in 1995, has sought parole for three months on the ground that his mother has been advised to undergo knee surgery and subsequent physiotherapy for three months and his presence was required to take care of her during this period.
He also said that his brother had recently died in an accident and hence, he is the only son to care of his mother. Earlier, Justice Mukta Gupta had recused from hearing the matter and directed that the petition be listed before another bench on July 16.
Justice Gupta, before being elevated to the bench, had been representing Delhi Police as a lawyer and had dealt with the tandoor case in the high court.
The former Youth Congress leader, in its plea, had also challenged the May 22 order of the Delhi government by which his mother's plea to grant him parole was rejected on the ground that he had availed parole from December 2013 to March 2014 and six months have not elapsed since his surrender. Sharma, who was granted furlough on June 3 for three weeks by the Director General of Prisons here, had surrendered on June 26.
The Supreme Court on October 8 last year had commuted to life imprisonment the death penalty awarded to Sharma for the murder and burning of the body of his wife in a tandoor, saying “brutality” alone would not justify death sentence. On the intervening night of July 2-3, 1995, Sharma had shot dead Naina, suspecting her of having an affair with someone else, and then tried to destroy evidence by burning her body in the tandoor of his restaurant Bagia, the court had noted in its verdict.
