A grieving mother straps up for court battle and painful answers

The file, with countless post-it notes sticking out of it, looks impossibly large on the small dining table of the apartment in Santacruz (W)

The file, with countless post-it notes sticking out of it, looks impossibly large on the small dining table of the apartment in Santacruz (W). The file is part of Niddhi Kukreja’s voluminous research to get to the bottom of what really happened on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1, 2021 -- when her daughter Jhanvi, 19, was murdered while out partying with friends. Some of these friends she had known all her life.

The arguments in the murder case are slated to begin from Monday, and Niddhi hopes that the twists and turns of the trial will answer some of the questions that have have haunted her for over a year (HT Photo)

Jhanvi Kukreja would have turned 21 this August. Instead, a week after her birthday, Niddhi Kukreja was standing in the court of additional sessions judge AB Sharma listening to him pass an order that would allow her to assist the special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat in the trial of her daughter’s murder.

The arguments in the murder case are slated to begin from Monday, and Niddhi hopes that the twists and turns of the trial will answer some of the questions that have have haunted her for over a year.

The Kukreja family’s grief is compounded by the mystery surrounding Jhanvi’s death, “and the bizzare manner in which the others who were present at that party and their families – including people we have known for years – have behaved since.”

On the night of 31st December, which also was Jhanvi’s father Prakash’s birthday, the family had a little celebration after which the Jai Hindu college student went out for a new year’s party with her friends at Bhagwati Heights at Khar, about 2 kilometers away from their residence at Santacruz. There were about 10 friends at the party including Diya Padalkar, their next- door neighbour and Jhanvi’s childhood friend. Three others girls who lived in Kukreja’s building were at the same party hosted by Yash Ahuja whom Jhanvi had met through their common friends.

At around 5 am on January 1, 2021, Prakash Kukreja got a call from Sameer Padalkar, Diya’s father. “All he said was the girls had been in a mishap and that I should come to Khar police station.” Prakash says he called Sameer back: “It wasn’t making sense. If the girls had been in an accident, I wanted to know which hospital they were in. Sameer said Jhanvi was at Bhabha Hospital and Diya was Hinduja Hospital. He then said I should come to Khar police station and hung up,” recalls Prakash Kukreja, who works with a shoe company.

When he reached the Khar police station, he saw a large group gathered there including the other teenagers and their parents. “A police officer told me that Jhanvi had died, and I just collapsed,” Prakash recalls. Though the initial hospital report suggested accident, Jhanvi’s 48 injuries including a skull fracture, convinced the parents that this was no accident.

Subsequent police investigations revealed that an argument had broken out between Jhanvi Kukreja and the two accused, Diya and her friend Shree Jogdhankar. It’s still not clear to Niddhi what the fight was about but the police say the argument led to a violent scuffle and eventually her death. Jhanvi’s body was found on the ground floor of Bhagwati Heights and there is evidence to suggest that she was dragged from the 8th floor to the second floor as her bangles, earrings, sandals and hair band were found strewed all along the staircase. It’s still not clear how Jhanvi’s body reached the ground floor or why Jhanvi’s blood was found on the bed that Diya later slept on in the Ahuja house. These are some of the questions that haunt Niddhi Kukreja as she sets about assisting the prosecution in her daughter’s murder trial.

She appealed to the additional sessions judge to allow her to assist the special public prosecutor Gharat as she knows most of the others who were present at the party that night. “They have come to my house on numerous occasions, they have eaten at our table and watched countless hours of television with my two daughters,” she says. Diya Padalkar, accused and their next- door neighbour was like a part of the family. Diya is at present out on bail, and the Padalkars have, since the murder. moved out of the neighbourhood to Andheri.

Niddhi says she had also met the other accused Shree Joghdankar, then 21, on several occasions. “He was a friend of Jhanvi’s. He had a dog, and we had just adopted Laila whom he would come to see .” Niddhi Kukreja insists that there was no romantic relation between Shree and her daughter.

“None of the children present at the party that night have spoken to me since Jhanvi’s death despite my many efforts to reach out to them. The Ahujas, at whose house the party was, did not even call to condole,” says the distraught mother. “I know these kids; the lawyers don’t. These children have often slept at my home when they got home late and feared that their own parents would shout at them – but I always made it a point to inform the parents that the children were at my home, so they wouldn’t worry. Yet, when my daughter was so brutally attacked, not one parent did me the courtesy of even phoning from the police station to let me know what had happened,” says Niddhi amid tears. She is stunned that none of the girls who have grown up before her very eyes has come forward with an eyewitness account. “They avoid us like the plague. If they even see our car coming, they turn theirs around.”

Niddhi Kukreja who has put her life on hold to piece together the sequence of that night—she is the one attending all court hearings—says the trial is where some of her questions will be answered. “It was important that I be allowed to be an assistant to the special PP as the children who will depose as witnesses will see me there. They know that I can catch them out and hopefully my presence will appeal to their conscience,” she says.