BENGALURU: “It would be a travesty of justice if every murderer is going to seek mercy merely because the accomplices of the assassins of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi have been released by the Supreme Court,” said former Indian diplomat, Akbar Khaleeli. He was reacting to the plea of his first wife Shakereh’s killer Shraddhanand alias Murali Manohar Misra, who was convicted in the case and was awarded life sentence until death. Shraddhanand sought parity with the convicts of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case on Wednesday, and pleaded before the apex court for early release.
Khaleeli said that he along with his daughter had met Home Minister Araga Jnanendra some months ago. “I said that we want the Supreme Court judgment against Shraddhanand to be maintained in letter and spirit. He was kind enough to assure us that they would do their best to respect the apex court judgment,” said Khaleeli. He argued that since the case was fought by the state of Karnataka, “it should oppose any attempt to release Shraddhanand, especially if no reference has been made to them by the Madhya Pradesh government. The primary responsibility lies with the Karnataka government. The home secretary and state government should ensure that their standing counsel opposes any move to release him”.
On Shraddhanand seeking parity with Rajiv’s assassins, Khaleeli said that if at all, the Shakereh murder case should be compared with the Nirbhaya case. “Shraddhanand is a murderer. The Rajiv Gandhi assassination convicts who have been released from prison were accessories. The main assassins had committed suicide,” he added.
Shraddhanand awarded death penalty in 2000
Shraddhanand was arrested in 1994 for burying his wife Shakereh alive in the backyard of her sprawling mansion at 81, Richmond Road, on May 28, 1991, after he had laced her tea with sedatives. Three years later, on March 30, 1994, Shakereh’s skeletal remains were exhumed after one of her daughters, Sabah, from her first marriage with Khaleeli, filed a missing complaint at Ashoknagar police station on June 10, 1992. Shraddhanand was convicted under Sections 302 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for murder and causing disappearance of evidence, and giving false information to screen himself in the high-profile murder case.
On May 21, 2000, a Bengaluru sessions court awarded death sentence to Shraddhanand, which was confirmed by the Karnataka High Court in 2005. On July 22, 2008, the SC commuted his death sentence to “imprisonment for life and direct(ed) that he shall not be released from prison till the rest of his l i fe”. He was transferred to Sagar Central Prison from Bangalore Central Prison in 2011. Shakareh was the granddaughter of former Dewan of Mysore, Sir Mirza Ismail. She had first met Shraddhanand in 1983 when she and her family visited the erstwhile Nawab of Rampur in New Delhi.
He was asked to come to Bengaluru to help her sort out her property issues. Khaleeli was posted as a diplomat to Iran around this time. Shraddhanand started working on Shakereh’s alleged ‘desire’ for a son and convinced her that with his occult powers, he could make her beget a son. In 1985, Shakereh and Khaleeli divorced after 21 years of marriage. The couple had four daughters. She married Shraddhanand on April 17, 1986. In 1987, he managed to get general power of attorney over his wife’s property. Greed made him insecure as he saw Shakereh interact with her daughters. That’s when he planned to murder her.