Ex-Cong councillor gets life-term for colleague's murder

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday awarded life-term to former MCD councillor Sharda Jain of the Congress for kidnapping and killing councillor Atma Ram Gupta in 2002 with the help of one Rajender.

A Bench of Justices M.M. Shantanagoudar and Ajay Rastogi upheld the order of the Delhi High Court, but acquitted the third accused Raj Kumar.

The top court asked them to surrender forthwith to serve the life-term.

Gupta had gone to attend a Congress rally at Ferozeshah Kotla ground, here, on August 24, 2002 with then Keshavpuram councillor Jain. He went missing after that.

His body was later recovered at the instance of Jain and other convicts from a canal in the Bulandshahr district in UP.

According to prosecution, Jain had hired two contract killers who gunned Gupta down in her presence at Chhajjupur village in Ghaziabad.

The motive behind the murder was 'irreconcilable differences' between Gupta and Jain over the former's alleged relationship with another woman councillor.