Frame-up claimed in oven murder
POLICE in New Delhi say they have enough proof to 'hang' a politician from the ruling Congress (I) party who allegedly murdered his wife and stuffed her body in the oven of a local tandoori restaurant.
'We have sufficient evidence to hang him,' said Maxwell Periera, the officer in charge of the murder case.
However, Sushil Sharma, the former head of the youth wing of the Congress (I) party said he was innocent and the victim of a 'political frame-up'.
Sharma went missing after the murder and was later apprehended in the southern city of Bangalore.
On arriving in New Delhi late on Tuesday night, Sharma claimed he was not in town on July 2, when Naina Sahni, his 29-year-old wife, was murdered. Her charred body was recovered from the oven of a popular restaurant in a state-run hotel in central Delhi.
Sharma told reporters he heard about his wife's 'tragic' death from the newspapers in Madras, south India, three days after her body was recovered.
'There is a conspiracy against me. I am a political victim,' he said before being taken to a special interrogation cell.
Till now, the restaurant manager Keshav Kumar is the only one to have been arrested in the gruesome case. He was caught by a passing policeman furtively stoking the tandoor where the murdered woman's body was burning.
Investigations, however, pointed the finger at Sharma, who was missing. Police posted a reward of 100,000 rupees (about HK$25,300) for information on his whereabouts.
Sharma, meanwhile, surfaced in Madras where, through political connections, he managed to 'organise' anticipatory bail last week to postpone being arrested.
Bail, however, was cancelled, given the seriousness of the case and Sharma once again fled, only to be arrested on Monday in Bangalore, 640 kilometres away.
