Sevanti, sister of murdered Indian Express journalist Shivani Bhatnagar, on Tuesday told a local Delhi court that Shivani had confided in her that she had threatened to 'expose' prime accused Indian Police Service officer Ravi Kant Sharma and 'ruin his career'.
Complete coverage of the Shivani Bhatnagar case
Deposing as a prosecution witness, Sevanti said she came to know of this from Shivani after the birth of a male child to her at Jassa Ram Hospital in Delhi.
After the birth of the child, Shivani was looking depressed, she said.
"Initially she avoided talking about it and then on some persuasion, she came out and said that R K Sharma had been avoiding her phone calls. She told me that she had warned Sharma that if he did not mend his ways, then she would expose him and ruin his career," Sevanti said.
Sevanti said on Shivani's request, she rang up Sharma at his Mumbai number thrice from her Ghaziabad residence phone to inform him of the birth of the child.
Sevanti, who claimed that Shivani used to confide in her details of her personal life, said she knew that the scribe and Sharma were good friends.
Narrating the events of January 23, 1999, when Shivani was killed, Sevanti said it was her brother-in-law Rakesh Bhatnagar who informed her parents that Shivani had been stabbed.
"My parents immediately left for Delhi asking me to stay back. Then I called up again at my sister's house between 8-8.30 pm. A male voice answered and when I asked who was speaking, he said he was a policeman and that my sister had been taken to Apollo Hospital," she said.
The defence counsel then referred to her statement to police where he said both these facts had not been recorded.
At the Apollo Hospital, she met Bhatnagar, Sevanti said, adding it was there that she got the news that Shivani had been murdered.