Jhanvi Kukreja murder: Court allows mother to assist prosecution

The sessions court has allowed Niddhi Kukreja, mother of Jhanvi Kukreja, to assist the prosecution in her daughter’s murder trial

The sessions court has allowed Niddhi Kukreja, mother of Jhanvi Kukreja, to assist the prosecution in her daughter’s murder trial.

Niddhi Kukreja, mother of Jhanvi Kukreja HT Archives

Janhvi, 19, was found dead on the staircase of a building at Khar on December 31, 2020. She was accompanied by her boyfriend Shree Jogdhankar and friend Diya Padalkar to a new year’s eve party.

Niddhi Kukreja’s petition, filed through advocate Trivankumar Karnani last week, said “she is a devastated mother of the victim and a directly affected/interested party, and her appearance is germane to the just decision of the case”.

“Both the accused with criminal motives committed the premeditated murder of the elder daughter of the intervener, who is the sole victim of the incident. She lost her life to a gruesome and cold-blooded murder committed by her friends,” the plea said.

It added, “The accused murdered Jhanvi, deliberately denied her vital medical assistance, left her in a pool of blood, and fled the spot immediately. The subsequent conduct of both the accused further goes on to show their culpability since after committing the murder they fled the spot and went to separate hospitals to show themselves to be injured with a motive to get away with committing the gruesome murder.”

Karnani said he was orally told that their application was allowed and he was waiting for a written order to be uploaded on the court’s website.

The Khar police in their chargesheet had claimed that Jhanvi was physically assaulted by her boyfriend Jogdhankar, 23, and his friend Padalkar, 19. Her head was banged on the walls and staircase railings of Bhagvati Heights at Khar. She, police claimed, was dragged from the fifth-floor stairs to the second floor where she was thrown off.

Jhanvi had suffered 48 injuries, including a skull fracture, which caused her death.