It's Still Unspooling

Highly-placed sources of the Delhi Police told Outlook that the sealed documents submitted to the high court during the hearing of Sharma’s anticipatory bail plea were of two kinds: a comprehensive dossier on Sharma’s alleged financial irregularities as well as papers recovered from Shivani’s residence after her death, which included evidence of Sharma’s dealings as well as cabinet notes. In the accompanying affidavit, the Delhi Police has said that Shivani had intimate knowledge of Sharma’s financial affairs.

The police submission went through four different theories that it had examined in the course of the investigation. Two were rejected after the initial rounds of interrogation. The first theory revolved around the possible involvement of Shivani’s husband, Rakesh Bhatnagar. After repeated and intensive interrogations and investigations, the police concluded that Bhatnagar was completely in the clear. The second theory was that Sharma was deeply enamoured of Shivani and resented her involvement with any other person. This, too, was rejected.

The third and fourth theories, say sources, establish a powerful motive for the conspiracy to do away with Shivani. The third line of investigation reportedly established that Sharma and the Indian Express reporter shared an intimate relationship—an allegation challenged by Sharma’s defence counsel Dinesh Chandra Mathur on the grounds that circumstantial evidence did not conclusively prove an affair between the two. In fact, he charged the Delhi Police with running a "vulgar campaign" against a murder victim. The documents submitted to the court, say police sources, imply that Shivani had the means to threaten Sharma for having cut her off emotionally—this was the fourth line of investigation.

Officially, the Delhi Police has refused to reveal the contents of the sealed packet submitted to the court and has been maintaining a tight-lipped stance even in the face of provocative statements by the defence counsel. For instance, Mathur ridiculed the Delhi Police for harping on the fact that Shivani had reportedly asked her sister to call up Sharma following the birth of her son. Nowhere has the police specifically stated why the late victim wanted the message conveyed to the chief suspect. Instead of categorically stating before the court the nature of the Shivani-Sharma relationship, the police expected the court to suo motu presume it was an intimate one.

Police officials, however, are extremely confident that the documents will provide substantial ground for rejection of Sharma’s anticipatory bail. Apart from the persons already arrested as Sharma’s co-conspirators, the police recently named another suspect in the case, Ved Sharma alias Kallu.

An intriguing aspect in the case is the fact that former prime minister I.K. Gujral had apparently obliged Sharma. Despite the fact that the department of personnel had reportedly objected to his appointment to Air India as chief vigilance officer on the grounds of non-eligibility, he was given the plum posting just before Gujral demitted office. Interestingly, his successor, A.B. Vajpayee, endorsed the decision.

There is also some speculation that Shivani was working on an exposé when she was murdered. She had reportedly told colleagues that her political sources had shown her a file implicating the son of a former prime minister in defence deals and had promised her copies of documents.

While the Delhi Police and the ruling party, from the PM to his deputy to the party spokesman, have given communications minister Pramod Mahajan a clean chit, legal experts say he may not be completely out of the woods. Says leading criminal lawyer R.K. Anand: "It is a fit case for examining the conspiracy angle." Pradeep (one of the suspected killers arrested by the police), he points out, implicated Sri Bhagwan, who implicated Sharma, who in turn could well implicate someone else. "Ideally, the investigating officer should have questioned Mahajan and recorded his statement," says Anand. After all, Mahajan seems to have known Shivani as the dozens of others whom the police interrogated.

It seems likely that Sharma’s wife and daughters, who have been pointing fingers at Mahajan and demanding his interrogation, would address the press before Sharma’s arrest. If he manages anticipatory bail, nothing stops him from making public statements. And if he chooses to surrender, he could well do it before the TV cameras in Haryana. What’s disturbing the BJP is that once the prime suspect names Mahajan, the police would be put in the awkward position of having to question the minister. During the trial, the defence counsel could well ask why Mahajan has not been examined.

Senior police officers say they’re trying to probe the source of the documents found at Shivani’s residence. As a political and investigative reporter of long standing, Shivani had an extensive network of contacts in the government.# The threat she posed to others perhaps cost her, her own life.