Self-styled godman, put behind bars for burying wife alive, cites ‘good conduct’, pleads release

A self-styled godman, who was awarded an imprisonment-till-death-sentence for burying his wife alive, has sought release from jail. The godman, Swami Shradhanand aka Murli Manohar Mishra, buried his wife Shakereh when she was still alive. The man has claimed that he has behaved well in jail and should be allowed to leave the jail.

The 83-year-old man has been behind the bars for the last 27 years. On Sunday evening, he was writing to the President after district judge Dev Narayan Mishra was on a routine inspection of the Sagar Central Jail.

Initially, the man was lodged at the Bengaluru central prison but was transferred to the Sagar central jail after he requested the same. A jail officer said that the self-styled godman is lodged in a barrack with elderly convicts.

Reportedly, he has health issues and spends the majority of his time teaching and holding spiritual discourses. He added, “He keeps asking for spiritual books and newspapers, which we provide him as per the jail manual. ”

Shakereh and Mishra tied the knot in 1986 and disappeared suddenly in April-May 1991, The Times of India reported. On June 10 the same year, Shakereh’s daughter from her first marriage to Akbar Khaleeli – India’s former envoy to Australia and Iran – lodged a complaint in Bengaluru.

After three years, the cops found out that the self-styled godman laced his wife’s tea to sedate her and buried her alive at their home on Richmond Road. Reportedly, the godman wanted to usurp her property. The body was later exhumed and he was nabbed in 1994. In 2000, a trial court sentenced the self-styled godman to death and five years later, Karnataka High Court confirmed the death sentence.

The man appealed in the Supreme Court and after a split verdict, the case was transferred to a larger bench. In 2008, the SC changed the sentence to “imprisonment for his while lifetime without any remission”.