SC stayed death sentence for Tandoor murder case accused Sushil Kumar

May 07: The Supreme Court stayed the death sentence of the main accused in the 1995 Tandoor murder case, Sushil Sharma. A bench comprising of Justice S B Sinha and Markandey Katju admitted the appeal filed by Sharma and send the matter to a three-judge bench for further hearing.

Earlier in the month of July, 1995, Sushil Sharma, who is a former Congress leader, was accused for killing his wife Naina Sahini and later disposing the body by burning it in a clay oven. He had killed his wife with a suspicion that she was having an extra-marital affair. The Delhi Court in 2003 arrested Sharma and announced death sentence for brutally killing his wife.

Sharma challenged the lower courtâ??s order in Delhi High Court but the court upheld the death sentence. In last February, the high court has continued with the death sentence citing it as one of the rarest of rare cases. The high court rejected to convert the death sentence in to life imprisonment for this ghastly killing.

The apex court however stayed the death sentence today and forwarded the case to a bench of three-judges for further hearing.