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Madhu Sharma points a finger at Mahajan

By Our Special Correspondent

CHANDIGARH AUG. 15. At a late-night meeting with television reporters, Madhu Sharma, wife of the absconding Haryana cadre IPS officer, Ravi Kant Sharma, alleged that the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, and the Information Technology Minister, Pramod Mahajan, were framing her husband for the murder of Shivani Bhatnagar, Indian Express correspondent. Mr. Sharma is the prime suspect in the Shivani Bhatnagar murder case. He was removed as the IG (Prisons) Haryana, after he failed to resume duty on expiry of 10 days leave.

Ms. Sharma demanded the disclosure of details about the telephone calls allegedly made by Mr. Mahajan to Shivani before the murder in January 1999. She charged that Mr. Mahajan was responsible for the murder and alleged that she was aware of the `hideout', where Mr. Mahajan allegedly used to meet Shivani.

Ms. Sharma alleged that the vehicle in which she was travelling was hit by another `vehicle' and that teams of Delhi Police were harassing her and her daughters.

PTI reports:

Ms. Sharma alleged that Mr. Mahajan had a relationship with Shivani and was in regular contact with her. The Delhi police had been investigating the case for the last three years but had not revealed the names of those politicians with whom Shivani was keeping in touch.

``Why was my husband singled out?'' she asked. She also alleged that the Deputy Prime Minister, L. K. Advani, was putting pressure on the investigators to toe a particular line. A near-hysterical Sharma alleged that Mr. Mahajan had spoken to Shivani for 45 minutes on the day of murder. The details of his call should be made public, she demanded. She claimed her husband, an IGP rank officer, had told the police three months after the murder about the involvement of a politician.

Police had told him that they knew about it but could not question the politicians, she alleged.

She said the police had a ``one-line directive'' not to question any politician. Ms. Sharma shouted into the cameras, ``my husband is hiding where Mahajan used to meet Shivani Bhatnagar.''

She said her husband, who happened to know the murdered journalist, was being framed in the case. Reacting to Ms. Sharma's allegations, Mr. Mahajan said he had not committed any crime in his life and was ready for a probe by any agency, including the CBI or Delhi police.

Mr. Mahajan said he knew Shivani as a journalist covering the BJP beat in his capacity as a Minister and party leader. It was a purely professional relationship and the allegations were being levelled against him by a person whose husband was running away from the police. Mr. Mahajan said he was at a loss to know why Ms. Sharma was making such allegations and that he had nothing to fear. He said he would treat these allegations with the contempt they deserved and demanded that Ms. Sharma make public any proof she had against him.

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