The Delhi High Court on Wednesday acquitted former senior IPS officer Ravi Kant Sharma and two others in the sensational killing of journalist Shivani Bhatnagar in 1999.
The court, however, upheld the conviction and life sentence of the fourth accused, Pradeep Sharma, who had killed the scribe.

Shivani Bhatnagar was working with the Indian Express. Deciding the appeals by the four against their conviction and sentence in the murder case, a bench of justices B D Ahmed and Manmohan Singh gave the benefit of doubt to R K Sharma, Sri Bhagwan Sharma and Satya Prakash. A trial court had sentenced Sharma and the three to life imprisonment in March 2008. Shivani Bhatnager was killed in her flat in East Delhi on January 23, 1999.

The trial court, however, had acquitted co-accused Dev Prakash Sharma and Ved alias Kalu in the case. The bench had reserved its verdict on December 21 last year on appeals by Sharma and three other convicts who were serving life term in Tihar Jail.