Bangalore, Nov. 4 (PTI): Karnataka High Court today upheld the life term handed to the fiancée of an Intel software engineer and her three associates for the techie’s murder almost seven years ago.

B.V. Girish was engaged to Shubha, who conspired with her boyfriend Arun Verma and two others to bump off the engineer while he had taken her out for dinner.

Shubha, an advocate, committed the crime after her father forced her to get engaged to Girish after learning of her relationship with Arun, the prosecution said.

A division bench of Justices N. Anand and A.S. Pachhapure dismissed the appeals filed by Shubha and the others challenging the life sentence given to them by a city fast-track court on July 14 this year.

Police had named Shubha and three others — Arun, his cousin Dinesh and the hired assassin Venkatesh — in the chargesheet.

The appeal hearing took a curious turn following distribution of pamphlets in the high court titled “Get Justice for Girish”.

Justice K. Sridhar Rao, who was hearing the matter till then, later recused himself from the case because of the controversy. Chief Justice J.S. Khehar then referred the matter to a division bench, headed by Justice Anand.

Special public prosecutor Venkat Rao said after the judgment today the state had filed cross-appeals seeking death sentence for Venkatesh and life for the others under Section 304 (murder) of the IPC.

“The division bench has upheld our appeals and modified the lower court order, sentencing all the four to life imprisonment under Section 304. But our appeal for the death sentence for Venkatesh has not been considered,” Rao said.

Girish’s sister-in-law Ratna said she was quite satisfied with the order, which came after nearly a seven-year battle for justice. “We have got justice. Basically, our faith in the judiciary has been reinforced,” she said.

Asked if the family of the slain engineer would approach the Supreme Court seeking an enhancement of sentence , Ratna said she would take a decision after discussions with their lawyers. “At this point, I can only say that we are relieved and satisfied,” she said.

Arun and Shubha hired Venkatesh for Rs 1,500 to murder Girish. On December 3, 2003, Shubha got Girish to take her out to dinner and made him stop his bike near Jumbo Point, a spot close to the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) airport on the fringes of the city. Then, as Girish watched a plane take off, Venkatesh crept up from behind, hit him in the head with a shock-absorber and sped away on the techie’s bike.

Girish’s body was found the next day. Shubha was arrested in January 2004 and was in judicial custody for over three months before she was granted bail.