Shreya Sharma, a 17-year-old Class XII student, was found dead in Rohini’s Sector 17 last year. (Express Archive)
“It is a case of a jilted lover who wanted deceased back at any cost. He applied all tactics, extended threats, but when he did not succeed in getting her back, he eliminated her,” said an Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) while convicting a 20-year-old man for murdering his school junior in Rohini last year.
Shreya Sharma, a 17-year-old Class XII student, was found dead near her house in Rohini’s Sector 17. She was studying at Titiksha Public School in Rohini, and had gone for tuition classes on August 16 last year.
According to the court records, the accused, her school senior Sarthak Kapoor, had “repeatedly harassed” her. The first instance of harassment, as per the court records, was in April 2017 when Kapoor had caused injuries to the victim outside the school chemistry lab. Despite warnings, the harassment continued outside school.
The court relied upon various statements of witnesses, including one of Shreya’s friend, who stated that she had confided in him that the accused was pressuring her to meet him. “Shreya was very disturbed due to this and was in depression,” he told the court.
In his order, ASJ VK Bansal said that since there were no eyewitnesses to the murder, the case was based upon circumstantial evidence.
The judge relied on the circumstance of last scene, recovery of the dead body and bag containing books and slippers of the girl; as well as the recovery of a poem written by the victim.
The four-page poem, handwritten by the victim, was recovered from the house of the accused. The court said that the poem “showed the plight and the emotions suffered by her during the said period”.
The court noted that she was seen with the accused at 5 pm on the day of the incident.
“CCTV footage confirmed it. They were together at about 5.01 pm…The PM report also confirms the time of death as around the time when they were last seen together,” said the judge.
The court also pointed out that the recovery of the dead body was at the instance of the accused. Police had also found the bags and books of the victim near the dead body.
The defence had objected stating that the recoveries were planted by the police to bring the guilt of the accused.
The court, however, said the victim was going to the tuition centre and it was natural that she would carry a bag to keep her books, notebooks and stationary.
After hearing arguments from both sides, the court said: “This circumstance points towards guilt of the accused and is also inconsistent with any hypothesis of innocence of the accused.”