Judgment reserved in Atma Ram murder case

The Delhi High Court has reserved its judgment on a bunch of appeals by convicts in the Atma Ram murder case against their conviction by a trial court here in 2006.

The Court reserved the judgment on conclusion of arguments by the prosecution and counsel for the accused persons. It had started hearing arguments on the appeals last year.

Former Municipal Corporation of Delhi councillor Sharda Jain, the main accused in the case, her brother Rajkumar Jain, two contract killers and two others were sentenced to life imprisonment by the trial court in 2006.

Counsel for Ms. Jain submitted that the call details of her mobile showed that she was in Ghaziabad only for about half an hour on the day of the incident.

He focussed on this factor to prove to the Court that though she was present in Ghaziabad on the day when Atma Ram was murdered, but she was not involved in it as it was not possible for her to do all that was alleged by the police and be back in Delhi in such a short span of time.

The two contract killers hired by Ms. Jain for Rs. 60,000 had allegedly gunned down Atma Ram Gupta in her presence in Ghaziabad in 2002. The motive behind the murder was “irreconcilable differences” between Atma Ram Gupta and Sharda Jain over the alleged relationship of the former with another woman councillor.

Sharda Jain was allegedly in love with Atma Ram so she had started feeling insecure because of his proximity to the other woman councillor.