The Hindu : Sharma being hounded, says wife

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 09, 2002

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Sharma being hounded, says wife

By Devesh K. Pandey

NEW DELHI AUG. 8. With Madhu Sharma, wife of the main accused in the Shivani murder case, R. K. Sharma, showing up before the media at Panchkula in Chandigarh today, the Crime Branch team is planning to question her to get a clue on her husband's whereabouts, suspected to be in Himachal Pradesh.

Intense pressure mounted on Mr. Sharma is understood to have led him to organise a press conference through his wife. Police sources said that the move would help them trace him as Ms. Sharma was allegedly with her husband when he fled from his residence.

Reacting to Madhu's allegation that some "powerful leader" in the Government was involved in Shivani's murder, police said that the charge would be investigated if the Crime Branch came across any related evidence. However, they remained tight-lipped on her allegations that they were playing a "game'' against her husband on the direction of "someone" in the Home Ministry.

To trace Mr. Sharma, who is barely contacting his close relatives and friends, the Crime Branch is keeping a watch over his financial transactions made through his credit cards. It is learnt that police has contacted the banks concerned to gather necessary data. Mr. Sharma is suspected to be communicating with his contacts through short messaging service, which cannot be traced easily.

The raids mounted all over Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and Haryana to trace Mr. Sharma, meanwhile, have not yielded any result. Also, a formal assistance from the Himachal Pradesh police in this regard is yet to come, even as the Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, U.K. Katna, said that the investigating officers were in touch with their counterparts in the State.

Police are also on the lookout for another accused, Satya Prakash, from whom they hope to recover the car and cellular phone, used during the murder operation, and the camera, which was stolen by Pradeep (who is in custody) after he, along with his accomplice, allegedly murdered Shivani. Satya Prakash is suspected to be hiding in Haryana.

On the basis of information provided by Pradeep and Sri Bhagwan Sharma, police have concluded that the other murderer is tall, medium built and has a thin moustache. Sources said that three of the 13 fingerprints lifted from the scene of crime had matched with those of Pradeep, confirming that he was one of the murderers.

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