Councillor held for Atma Ram's murder

NEW DELHI: Sharda Jain, 31-year-old MCD councillor from Keshav Puram, was arrested on Tuesday for the alleged abduction and murder of fellow councillor Atma Ram Gupta. Her brother Raj Kumar has also been arrested for being part of the murder conspiracy.
Sharda, said police officers, had hired killers from western UP for Rs 60,000 to murder 51-year-old Gupta, who had gone missing on Saturday shortly after leaving a Congress rally at Feroze Shah Kotla.

Though the police claim that Sharda has confessed to having orchestrated the murder, they had not found Gupta’s body till late Tuesday.
Though police remain tight-lipped about the motive, sources suggested a love triangle involving Sharda, Gupta and another Congress councillor, Memwati Barwala.
The incident has thrown the party high command in a tizzy and on Tuesday, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi suspended both Sharda and Memwati.
For several years, Sharda and Gupta, said sources, had been having an affair. However, for the past few months, Gupta had deliberately cut himself off and was showing interest in Memwati Barwala. This had infuriated Sharda, who allegedly fought with Gupta and Memwati.
The last straw for Sharda came when she found that Gupta had dropped her from the delegation which was to go to Chennai on Sunday and Memwati had replaced her, sources added.
‘‘There are other things that suggest that Sharda was jealous of Gupta and Memwati’s relationship. A few months back, she got a poster printed in which she accused both fellow councillors of adultery,’’ said an officer.
Police officers said Sharda and her brother planned to have Gupta murdered and hired two killers and a driver to help them do it.
On Tuesday evening, the Congress decided to expel both Sharda and Memwati from the party.
The sketchy sequence of events made public so far by the police state that during the Congress rally, Sharda lured Gupta to join him for a short trip to Ghaziabad to have a look at the land she wanted to buy. On the way, Sharda dropped her regular driver, Om Prakash, and had a new driver, Raju, at the wheels.
They then drove to western UP, where they were joined by the hired killers. Gupta was taken to a desolate spot and shot. Gupta, said officials, was murdered around 3 pm on Saturday. His body was disposed of by the killers. Sharda returned to Delhi around 5 pm and pretended she knew nothing about Gupta’s whereabouts.
When questioned by the police, Sharda gave several contradicting statements. A number of people had seen Gupta and her leave the rally together. Asked about this, she first told the police that she had dropped Gupta at Raj Ghat, later she claimed he had been dropped near ISBT.
When her driver, Om Prakash, was questioned, he told the police that Sharda had asked him to drive to Ghaziabad. Sharda had not revealed this to the police. Confronted with these contradictions, Sharda reportedly broke down and confessed to the murder. A hunt is on for the hired killers and the new driver.