The Supreme Court has refused to intervene in the matter of Swami Shraddhanand’s pending mercy petition, declining to direct the Centre to expedite a decision. Shraddhanand, also known as Murli Manohar Mishra, is an 87-year-old self-styled godman from Karnataka who has spent over 31 years in prison for the murder of his wife, Shakereh Khaleeli. His case is one of the longest incarcerations of a life convict in India without parole.
A bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi dismissed the plea on Friday after hearing submissions from Advocate Varun Thakur. Justice Maheshwari questioned why the matter had received six adjournments and remarked that the application would have been dismissed on the first day itself had it been placed before the current bench earlier. Thakur argued that Shraddhanand had never been granted parole and was in extremely poor health, but the bench remained unmoved.
The court pointed out that Shraddhanand’s review petition challenging his sentence of life imprisonment without remission had already been rejected, as had multiple earlier attempts to seek parole. These included a 2014 plea in which he not only asked for parole but sought a stay on the Amazon Prime docuseries Dancing on the Grave, which chronicled the murder case. Another parole petition was dismissed in September 2024.
Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj informed the bench that the Union government was waiting for the Karnataka government’s opinion, as it was the prosecuting authority. Once the state sends its response, he said, the Centre will process the mercy petition.
Sensing the bench’s refusal to interfere, Thakur stressed that Shraddhanand had completed more than 30 years in jail “for one incident,” citing the release of convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case as a point of comparison. The bench did not entertain the argument. When Thakur requested permission to approach state authorities for relief, the court dismissed the plea as withdrawn and declined to grant the liberty sought.
Shakereh Khaleeli — granddaughter of former Mysore Dewan Sir Mirza Ismail — married Shraddhanand in 1986 after ending her first marriage. She disappeared in 1994, prompting her daughter to file a complaint. Police later discovered that Shakereh had been drugged and buried alive in the courtyard of her Bengaluru home. Investigators determined that Shraddhanand murdered her to gain control of property estimated to be worth more than ₹600 crore, after she had executed a power of attorney and will in his favour.
Shraddhanand was arrested in 1994 and sentenced to death by a trial court in 2000. The Karnataka High Court confirmed the sentence in 2005. When the matter reached the Supreme Court, a split verdict was delivered in 2007, and a larger bench in 2008 commuted the death sentence to imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life, with no possibility of remission.
The crime later became the subject of the documentary series Dancing on the Grave, produced by the India Today Group. Despite multiple attempts to secure relief, Shraddhanand continues to remain in prison and has now completed more than three decades behind bars.
