Naina Sahni was the victim of the 1995

tandoor A tandoor ( or ) is a large vase-shaped oven, usually made of clay. Since antiquity, tandoors have been used to bake unleavened flatbreads, such as roti (as well as leavened ones, such as naan) and to roast meat. Tandoors are predominantly use ...

murder case. On 2 July 1995, 29-year-old Sahni was killed by her husband Sushil Sharma, an

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

youth leader. Sushil Sharma was

convicted In law, a conviction is the determination by a court of law that a defendant is guilty of a crime. A conviction may follow a guilty plea that is accepted by the court, a jury trial in which a verdict of guilty is delivered, or a trial by jud ...

for the murder by the

Trial Court A trial court or court of first instance is a court having original jurisdiction, in which trials take place. Appeals from the decisions of trial courts are usually heard by higher courts with the power of appellate review (appellate courts). ...

Delhi High Court The High Court of Delhi ( Hindustani: दिल्ली उच्च न्यायालय; ''dillī uchcha nyāyālaya'') is the high court in Delhi, India. It was established on 31 October 1966, through the ''Delhi High Court Act, 1966. ...

and

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

. In October 2013, Sharma's

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

was commuted to life imprisonment by the Supreme Court.

Tandoor murder case

Sushil Sharma objected to his wife Naina Sahni's friendship with Matloob Karim. Matloob and Naina were classmates and fellow Congress workers. Sushil suspected Naina of having an extramarital relationship with Matloob. On the night of 2 July 1995, Sushil came home and saw Naina talking on the phone and consuming alcohol. Naina, on seeing Sushil, hung up. Sushil redialed the phone to find Matloob on the other end. Enraged, he fatally shot Naina. He took the body to a restaurant named Bagiya and tried to dispose it off with the restaurant manager, Keshav Kumar. The body was put in a

(clay oven) to burn. Police arrested Keshav Kumar but Sharma managed to flee. He surrendered on 10 July 1995. The case also involved the use of DNA evidence to establish the identity of the victim. The first autopsy was conducted at the

Lady Hardinge Medical College Lady Hardinge Medical College, also known as LHMC, is a public medical college and central government hospital located in New Delhi, India. Established in 1916, it became part of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Delhi in 1950. The ...

and the cause of death was opined to be burn injuries. The second autopsy was ordered by the

Lieutenant Governor of Delhi The Lieutenant Governor of Delhi is the constitutional head of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. The post was established in September 1966, following the enactment of The Delhi Administration Act, 1966. Thereafter, the former Delhi Le ...

, and was conducted by a team of three doctors from three different hospitals headed by T. D. Dogra. They detected two bullets in the head and neck region, opined that the cause of death was due to firearm injuries. With that, the course of investigation changed and the actual story came to light. This case is a landmark citation for a fruitful second

autopsy An autopsy (also referred to as post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of deat ...

Delhi Police The Delhi Police (DP) is the law enforcement agency for the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Delhi Police falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. In 2024, the sanctioned strength of Delhi Police w ...

investigated the case and filed a

charge sheet In policing on the Indian subcontinent, a chargesheet is prepared after first information reports (FIRs), and charges an individual for (some or all of) the crimes specified in those reports. Once the chargesheet has been submitted to a cour ...

on 27 July 1995 in a

Sessions Court A Sessions Court or even known as the Court of Sessions Judge is a court of law which exists in several Commonwealth countries. A Court of Session is the highest criminal court in a district and the court of first instance for trying serious of ...

. On 7 November 2003, Sushil Sharma was

sentenced to death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

and the restaurant manager, Keshav Kumar, was given seven years rigorous imprisonment. Sharma appealed against the District Court Judgement in the

. The Court upheld the lower court's decision. In 2003, a city court sentenced him to 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. On 8 October 2013, a three-judge bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justices Ranjana Desai and Ranjan Gogoi of the Supreme Court upheld Sharma's conviction. However, the court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment because Sharma doesn't have a criminal antecedent and it is not a crime against society, but it is a crime committed by the accused due to a strained personal relationship with his wife. On 21 December 2018, Delhi High Court ordered the immediate release of Sushil Sharma. He walked out of jail in December 2018. He had spent nearly 23 years there.

References

* https://web.archive.org/web/20020320090304/http://www.tribuneindia.com/1999/99jan31/edit.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Sahni, Naina 1960s births 1995 deaths 1995 in India Deaths by firearm in India People murdered in Delhi Year of birth missing Violence against women in India Women in Delhi Murder in Delhi 1995 murders in India Uxoricides