‘All my negativity has been washed away by the sweat inside Tihar’
NEWDELHI:“I have lost 23 years in prison. I have a duty towards my elderly parents and want to spend the rest of my life with them,” said Sushil Sharma, the former youth Congress leader, who was released on Friday, 23 years after being arrested for his wife’s murder.
On Friday night, when Sharma’s 82-year-old mother welcomed him home and gave him a bouquet, he broke down. The two hugged. They cried.
Sharma, 57, was convicted of killing his wife Naina Sahni on July 2, 1995, in what came to be known as the Tandoor murder case. Police claimed that Kumar had later chopped his wife’s body and attempted to burn it in an oven (tandoor) at a restaurant on Ashoka Road. But the Supreme Court found no evidence to support these allegations and commuted Sharma’s death sentence to life imprisonment in 2013.
As an inmate of Delhi’s Tihar jail, Sharma, in 2015, also garnered the infamous record of having spent the most number of years — 21 — behind bars without being granted parole for even a single day since his arrest in 1995. He was granted his first parole by the high court in 2015.
“I am the only son. The last few years inside prison were the most difficult ones for me. My parents were keeping unwell and had to be hospitalised. There was no one to take care of them,” Sharma told Hindustan Times on Friday evening, after his release from Tihar jail. Sharma’s parents, in their mid-80s, live in outer Delhi.
“I do not know what I will do apart from being there for my parents. I am starting a new life today. I have to first perform my duty as a son. I have spent over 20 years in prison. If I can be of any help to Tihar, I would be happy to help the jail administration. I have no complaints against anyone. All the negativity in my life, that one second which cost me 23 years, has been washed away by the sweat inside prison,” he said
“I thank the Delhi High Court. My elderly parents are relieved,” he said.
In September 2015, the Delhi High Court granted Sharma parole for the first time. On Friday evening, as Sharma walked out of the prison gate, he had served the second-longest jail term of 23 years — 29 years with remission.
In the last Sentence Review Board meeting held in October, the jail and the social welfare department had agreed to Sharma’s release while the Delhi police, government and a city judge had raised objections. Prison officials said Sharma was transferred to the semi-open jail in 2016 because he displayed good conduct for over two decades.
A jail officer, who did not wish to be named, said, “For 21 years, until 2015, Sharma did not breathe the air outside Tihar. That is rare for any prisoner here. Until his release, he was managing the prison’s public relations office. He interacted with the families who came to visit their jailed relatives.” Sharma was also called wakil babu (lawyer) for helping prisoners with their legal cases inside prison.
When Delhi police nabbed Sharma in 1995, he was a powerful youth leader in his party as well as in Delhi’s political circle. “His clout is gone. A day in prison is a great leveller. The man spent 23 years here,” the officer said.