85-year-old Swamy Shraddananda, jailed for murdering his wife in 1991, seeks mercy citing age and illness. Supreme Court lists the plea after 12 weeks for Centre’s response.
New Delhi: On July 31, the Supreme Court of India recently took up the case of Swamy Shraddananda, also known as Murali Manohar Mishra, who has been serving a sentence of life imprisonment till natural death for the murder of his wife in 1991.
He has approached the top court seeking directions to the President of India to consider his long-pending mercy petition.
Shraddananda, who is now 85 years old and reportedly in poor health, has been in jail for more than 31 years.
He has never been granted even a single day of parole during all these years. His case is one of the most talked about criminal cases in India, especially due to the brutal nature of the crime, and because the Supreme Court had in 2008 commuted his death sentence.
At that time, the court had said that although the offence was very serious and fell under the “rarest of rare” category, the punishment should be something harsher than regular life imprisonment but short of the death penalty. This is why he was sentenced to remain in jail till his natural death.
On Thursday, a Bench of Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justice K. Vinod Chandran heard the matter and decided to post it for hearing after 12 weeks. This will give the Central Government time to respond to the petition regarding presidential mercy.
Appearing for Shraddananda, Advocate Varun Thakur told the court that his client had already spent more than three decades in jail.
He said Shraddananda was very old, suffering from multiple health issues, and deserved mercy after spending so much time behind bars. He also made an emotional appeal before the judges, saying,
“I have one mother. I am no terrorist, My Lord. I was convicted only on the basis of a judicial confession.”
He also said that he had spent seven years in the Cellular Jail, which is known for its harsh conditions.
However, the judges were not easily convinced. CJI Gavai reminded the counsel about the nature of the crime and remarked,
“Look at the case, what about the lady you murdered and buried in her own house?”
This refers to the fact that in 1991, Shraddananda had drugged his wife, Shakereh Khaleeli, and buried her alive in their own backyard. Her remains were only discovered in 1994, and the shocking details of the case had disturbed the entire nation.
Shraddananda was first sentenced to death by a Bengaluru trial court in 2000. The Karnataka High Court upheld this decision in 2005.
When the matter reached the Supreme Court, it agreed with the conviction but changed the punishment from death to life imprisonment till natural death in 2008, stressing the need for a punishment more severe than normal life imprisonment but not as extreme as the death penalty.
The Additional Solicitor General (ASG) KM Nataraj appeared on behalf of the Union of India. The matter will now come up again after 12 weeks.
This is not the first time the Supreme Court has heard submissions related to this case. On May 13, 2024, the Chief Justice had noted,
“Serious case, serious allegations. List after vacations.”
Even earlier, on January 24, 2024, the Supreme Court had asked the Central Government to respond to the mercy plea. In September 2024, the Court had issued notice in Shraddananda’s review petition.
In April 2023, the Supreme Court had refused to grant him parole. At that time, the Court allowed Shraddananda to withdraw a writ petition he had filed nearly 10 years ago.
The Court clarified that
“the dismissal of the writ petition would not prejudice other remedies open”
to him.
Apart from his legal struggles, Shraddananda had also approached the Court last year to stop the circulation of a web series titled Dancing On The Grave, which was released on Amazon Prime Video.
He claimed that the series showed the case in a biased way and could affect his ongoing proceedings before the court.
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