A Delhi court on Friday sentenced former councillor Sharda Jain, her brother Raj Kumar Jain and four other accomplices to life imprisonment for murdering fellow Congress councillor Atma Ram Gupta four years ago.
Three Uttar Pradesh Police personnel were also sentenced to three years' rigorous imprisonment for destruction of evidence in the case.
"The prosecution story as unfolded by the police shows as to how vicious a lady can be in the lust for love and power," Additional Sessions Judge Bharat Parashar had observed while holding 34-year-old Jain guilty for the killing of the 51-year-old councillor four years ago.
She was held guilty under Sections 302 (murder), 364 (abduction) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) under the Indian Penal Code along with her brother Raj Kumar Jain, ex-village head of Chajjupur in Ghaziabad, Roshan Singh, Rajender and hired killers Nirvikar and Puspender.
"Circumstances form a chain so complete, which leads me to the only conclusion that it is the present accused persons only who had committed the murder of Atma Ram Gupta after abducting him and also disposed off his body with a view to concealing evidence of their said crime," said the judge in the 93-page judgment.
Attributing the motive of the crime to the main accused Sharda Jain, then a Keshavpuram councillor, the ASJ said: "Prosecution has been more than successful in proving that Sharda Jain was having a liking for Gupta and on account of her close association with him she also tasted the fruit of power."
The court held that Sharda Jain, who had developed intimate relations with Gupta, became 'jealous' of the victim's growing proximity with another councillor Memwati Barwala and conspired with other accused to eliminate him thinking that he, after destroying her personal life, was bent upon ruining her political career also.
