New Delhi: Pradeep Sharma, the alleged killer of journalist Shivani Bhatnagar, today claimed before a court here that the police used his past criminal background to implicate him in the eight-year-old murder case.

"They (prosecution) wanted a person who had a criminal records. So I was picked up," Pradeep's counsel D B Goswami said as he opened his final arguments before Additional Sessions Judge Rajender Kumar Shastri.

The prosecution, which has alleged that suspended IPS officer R K Sharma plotted Shivani s murder, claimed that Pradeep with the help of four others went into the house of the Indian Express scribe on January 23,1999 and killed her.

Goswami submitted that prosecution s version to highlight Shivani's assailant as a "sharp-shooter" required it to rope in an accused who had a criminal history.

Replying to a categorical question from the judge as to why he was framed in the case, the counsel said that while the police were investigating this case in 2002, Pradeep was asked to appear before the Adarsh Nagar police station here in connection with another criminal case.

Goswami submitted that it was then that the police took his finger prints, and thereafter used them to build evidences against Pradeep in the present case.

While the arguments remained inconclusive, the counsel submitted that the police claim that they found his client's chance prints on the entry register of Shivani's apartments in east Delhi was false. 

Source : PTI