Bangalore, May 20: A self-proclaimed godman stood with a deadpan expression when he was convicted of slaying Shakereh, the granddaughter of Sir Mirza Ismail, diwan of erstwhile Mysore state, at the end of an 11-year trial today.

The sentence against Swami Shraddhananda, originally known as Manohar Mishra from Sagar in Madhya Pradesh, will be read out tomorrow by B.S. Thotad, additional city civil and sessions judge.

The judge held him guilty of murdering Shakereh, former wife of Akbar Khaleeli, who served as Indian high commissioner to Australia. He was also an envoy to Iran.

Shakereh’s daughter and former model Sabah Khaleeli broke down several times in the court after the stocky man was convicted.

A high school dropout, Shraddhananda met the Khaleelis when he was working for a royal family in Uttar Pradesh. He spoke about special spiritual powers and promised Shakereh a baby boy. She divorced Khaleeli in 1985 and married Shraddhananda in April 1986.

When the judge asked Shraddhananda why capital punishment should not be awarded to him, the man, dressed in a white kurta-pajama, stepped forward with four reasons ? he was 60 and in poor health (diabetes, blood pressure and arthritis); his 96-year-old father was ill and tended to by his (accused’s) brother in Sagar; he had not cheated Shakereh or squandered her wealth; and his exemplary behaviour in prison had prompted the authorities to select him to hoist the Tricolour on Republic Day in the presence of chief minister Dharam Singh.

Prosecution lawyer C.V. Nagesh argued that Shraddhananda be handed out death for betraying his wife and executing a well-planned murder. “Only death can do poetic justice to him for killing his wife.”

Defence counsel C.H. Hanumatharaya said though Shraddhananda was guilty, the court must assign special reasons for capital punishment. The Supreme Court had ruled that the death sentence should be given in “rarest of rare cases”.

The case made headlines after Shakereh was reported missing since March 28, 1991. Police registered a case following a complaint from Sabah on June 10, 1992. Two years later, on April 30, 1994, Shraddhananda was taken into custody after a servant spoke about the murder to the city crime branch.

Shakereh’s body was exhumed from a 100-foot pit dug under the porch of Khaleeli’s sprawling mansion in the heart of Bangalore.

The prosecution proved that Shraddhananda laced Shakereh’s tea with sedatives and buried her alive under the porch. He killed her as she had resisted his plans to sell off the mansion in Bangalore.

This case was among the first to employ DNA techniques for evidence. The court also accepted the videotapes of Shakereh’s body being exhumed.