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Delhi police torturing my husband: Madhu Sharma

Madhu Sharma, wife of Indian Police Service officer Ravi Kant Sharma, prime accused in the murder of journalist Shivani Bhatnagar, on Saturday alleged that the Delhi police was torturing her husband to try and extract a confession from him.

Madhu, along with hundreds of people from her husband's village in Haryana, laid siege to the Adarash Nagar police station.

"If they do not allow me to meet my husband, then I am going to sit on a dharna," she said.

"I met him and showed him the The Times of India newspaper, which had put out a frontpage story saying that he had confessed to killing Shivani Bhatnagar. He did not speak anything but moved his neck left and right to indicate that the story was incorrect," she said later.

Joint Commissioner U K Katna had also denied the story at a press conference in New Delhi. He, however, claimed that the investigation was progressing in the right direction.

"This is a figment of imagination of the reporter concerned," he said when asked about the authenticity of the report.

The Delhi police, which had planned to take Sharma to Mumbai and Pune on Friday, changed its plans. Instead some of the key witnesses were flown to Delhi for questioning.

These included Sharma's personal assistant when he was the chief vigilance officer in Air India in Mumbai.

It was then that he had allegedly paid Sri Bhagwan, Pradeep Kumar and others Rs 300,000 for murdering Bhatnagar.

According to the Delhi police, Sharma had planned the murder of Shivani Bhatnagar and was in Pune on the day of the murder -- January 23, 1999.

So far, Delhi police has arrested six persons in connection with the case.

Shivani Bhatnagar murder case: Complete coverage

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