BENGALURU: In the face of an appeal for Presidential pardon by his first wife Shakereh Namazi’s killer Swami Shraddhanand, alias Murli Manohar Misra, former Indian diplomat Akbar Khaleeli has urged the Karnataka government to “take suo motu cognizance of the move and ensure that the Supreme Court judgment on life term to Shraddhanand is respected in letter and spirit”. Khaleeli told The New Indian Express that he would call on the Home secretary in this connection shortly. Khaleeli met the DG, Prisons & Correctional Services on Tuesday morning and discussed the issue with him.
Meanwhile, Nagendra Chowdhry, deputy jailer, Sagar Central Prison, Madhya Pradesh, where Shraddhanand is currently lodged, said that during District Judge Dev Narayan Misra’s recent visit to the prison, the former had spoken to him about seeking Presidential pardon and early release.
“Shraddhanand had requested the jail authorities for a copy of the Supreme Court judgment. He said he would write to the President for early release on grounds of good behaviour. We have provided him with a copy of the judgment,” said the prison officer. He added that he has not yet written the letter.
Shraddhanand was transferred to Sagar Central Prison from Bangalore Central Prison in 2011. He was arrested in 1994 for burying his wife Shakereh alive in the backyard of her sprawling mansion -- 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 the Ashoknagar police station on June 10, 1992.
Shraddhanand was convicted under Sections 302 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for murder, 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 Supreme Court substituted his death sentence with “imprisonment for life and direct(ed) that he shall not be released from prison till the rest of his life”.
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 got 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.