Tandoor murder case: Delhi HC orders convict Sushil Sharma's immediate release

The Delhi High Court on Friday ordered the immediate release of Sushil Sharma, convicted for killing and burning wife in a ‘tandoor’ in 1995.

Sharma had been accused of chopping his wife’s body and putting it in a tandoor. (Image: PTI)

Tandoor murder case: The Delhi High Court on Friday ordered the immediate release of Sushil Sharma, convicted for killing and burning wife in a ‘tandoor’ in 1995. Sharma has been convicted for murdering his wife, Naina Sahani, in what was later known as the ‘tandoor murder case’. He had been accused of chopping his wife’s body and putting it in a tandoor (clay oven). In 2003, a city court awarded him death sentence which was later upheld by the Delhi High Court in 2007. In 2013, the SC commuted his death sentence stating that there was “no evidence” of Sharma chopping his wife’s body. The Delhi High Court on Wednesday observed that both human life and personal liberty should have value. The court’s observation came while hearing a plea by Tandoor murder case convict Sushil Sharma, wherein he has challenged his 29-year-old incarceration. “Human life and personal liberty both should value,” Justice Siddharth Mridul said. A bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal said it was concerned with the human rights of the prisoner and termed the issue as “very serious”. “He is incarcerated for over 25 years including remission. A murder itself is brutal. He has already served the sentence. Does it not infringe upon his human rights, which are inalienable rights. The Sentence Review Board (SRB) cannot say no no this murder was brutal, so we will not release him,” the bench said.