Kanpur Jyoti murder case: Husband among six get life term

The Kanpur district court on Friday sentenced six people, including Piyush Shyamdasani and his paramour Manisha Makhija, to life imprisonment in the sensational 2014 Jyoti murder case of the city

The Kanpur district court on Friday sentenced six people, including Piyush Shyamdasani and his paramour Manisha Makhija, to life imprisonment in the sensational 2014 Jyoti murder case of the city. Piyush Shyamdasani, the husband of Jyoti, is the main accused in the high-profile case. The court had convicted the six accused on Thursday.

The court had convicted the six accused on Thursday. (For Representation)

Additional district judge Ajay Tripathi pronounced the quantum of punishment in a packed courtroom. Apart from these two, the court also awarded life term to Manisha’s driver Awdhesh Chaturvedi, and aides Renu Kanaujia, Sonu Kashyap and Ashish Kashyap. All were sent to jail.

District government counsel (criminal) Dilip Awasthi said all of them were found guilty of conspiracy, murder and destruction of evidence. Renu and Sonu were also convicted under the Arms Act as a murder weapon was found on them.

Piyush’s mother Poonam besides brothers Kamlesh and Mukesh Shyamdasani were acquitted for lack of evidence. The police had charged them under section 202 of the IPC for hiding information. Piyush, who comes from a leading business family, had planned the murder of his wife as he had a relationship with another woman Manisha Makhija— the daughter of a paan masala baron.

On July 27, 2014, he informed police that after dinner at a restaurant while he was getting into the car, some motorcyclists assaulted him and took his wife Jyoti, 26, away with the car. At around 2 am the same night, the police had recovered the car with the body of Jyoti. The body had 17 stab wounds, four of them were on the neck and four on abdomen.

In the next 24 hours, Piyush was arrested after questioning in which he confessed to the crime. He told the police about the men he had hired with the help of Awdhesh to commit the crime.Welcoming the verdict, Jyoti’s father Shankar Nagdev, a top businessman from Jabalpur, said, “We have fought long for justice for my innocent daughter. I always believed in our judicial system and my faith has just doubled.”