From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Selfstyled Godman Swami Shradhananda alias Murli Manohar Mishra (83), who has been serving life term for the past 29 years in Sagar central jail in Madhya Pradesh for the murder of his wife on Thursday pleaded for his release before a Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices Hima Kohli and J B Pardiwal as a parity with the convicts of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case released by the top court over “satisfactry” behaviour.
He was sentenced to life term fr burying alive his wife Shakereh, the granddaughter of a former Dewan of Mysore state Sir Mirza Ismail in 1991. He pleaded for his release before the Apex Court, pointing out that he has already spent 29 years in jail, without any remission or parole.
Lured by Shradhananda, Shakereh, the granddaughter f former Dewan f the erstwhile Mysre state, had abandoned her husband, Indian diplomat Akbar Khaleeli and four daughters t start a new life with him.
In 2007, the Supreme Court dismissed his appeal for remission of the sentence, noting that the selfstyled gdman had an eye on Shakereh, wh he lured her t get her property and wealth worth crores of rupees.
Shakereh’s mother Taj Namazi had gifted her a property, including a house on Richmond Road in Bangalore, when she married her cousin, Akbar Khaleeli, India’s former envoy to Australia and Iran. This was in the early 1980s. Shakereh used to accompany her husband on his overseas postings.
In 1982, the family came across Shradhananda in Delhi at the residence of a common friend. Shradhananda used to work for their friend, who belongs to a former royal family of Uttar Pradesh, and moved up the ladder from being an errand boy to handling tax and property matters.
He gained the trust of Shakereh and his family with his gift of gab, and they invited him to Bangalore. “This was a fateful invitation that spelt doom for Khaleeli,” said Bangalore Police Commissioner S. Mariswamy to India Today.
As per the SC verdict, Shradhananda started helping Shakereh resolve property matters, and soon the two got into a relationship, with the godman exploiting her desire to have a son by claiming magical powers.
In 1985, Shakereh divorced her Akbar, whom she was married for 21 years, and went with Shradhananda, and the next year, the two got married.
Soon, differences cropped up between the two and in 1991, Shradhananda had decided to kill her. He asked the sevants to make a wooden casket to keep the antiques and ornaments safely, and also asked labourers to dig a pit in the courtyard, saying it was for the purpose of a tank.
In March 1991, he drugged Shakereh giving her sleeping tablets, and put her in the casket and buried her alive in the backyard of her palatial house in Richmond Road to usurp her property, which was valued at over Rs 600 crore in those days.
Sometime in April-May 1991, after one of Shakereh’s daughters, Sabah noticed that her mother was missing, she confronted Shradhananda, who said she had gone abroad to have a baby. However, Sabah was not convinced, and lodged a missing person complaint on June 10, 1992. Sabah, in her complaint, said that she had last spoken with Shakereh over telephone on April 19, 1991, and Shakereh’s mother Gauhar Namaze, had last met her six days earlier.
After three years of investigation by Bangalore police, the cops zeroed in Shradhananda. Later, a detective of the Central Crime Branch had a servant from the Shakereh’s home confess to him in a drunken state that he had helped Shradhananda kill his royal wife.
In 1994, Shakereh’s body was exhumed and the process was videographed. Investigators found that she was killed after she executed a general power of attorney and a will in favour of Shradhananda.
On April 30, 1994, Shradhananda was arrested based on the statements of the servants.
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