NEW DELHI, 8 November 2003 — A court yesterday handed down the death penalty to a former politician convicted of shooting his wife and burning her dismembered corpse in the tandoor (oven) of an open-air restaurant, officials said.

Additional Sessions Judge G.P. Thareja on Monday pronounced Sushil Sharma guilty of murdering his wife Naina Sahni, 29, in July 1995 and burning her body parts in the grill of the Baghiya restaurant in New Delhi to try to get rid of the evidence.

The ploy did not work as police raided the restaurant and dug out charred body parts from the Indian-style oven, which were identified as Sahni’s.