Khar NYE murder: ‘Janhvi Kukreja’s head was banged on the railings and walls’

Nineteen-year-old Janhvi Kukreja was physically assaulted by her boyfriend Shree Jogdhankar, 23, and his friend Diya Padalkar, 19, her head was banged on the walls and staircase railings of Bhagvati Heights building at Khar, was dragged from the fifth floor stairs to the second floor and eventually thrown off the second floor, according to the 600-page charge-sheet filed by Khar police against the two accused in the case on Tuesday

Nineteen-year-old Janhvi Kukreja was physically assaulted by her boyfriend Shree Jogdhankar, 23, and his friend Diya Padalkar, 19, her head was banged on the walls and staircase railings of Bhagvati Heights building at Khar, was dragged from the fifth floor stairs to the second floor and eventually thrown off the second floor, according to the 600-page charge-sheet filed by Khar police against the two accused in the case on Tuesday.

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The incident took place on the night of December 31, 2020, when Kukreja had gone to the building for a New Year party at the rooftop of the eight-floor building along with the accused. The party, according to the charge sheet, was organised by their common friend, Yash Ahuja.

In the statements given to police, their friends stated that Kukreja and Padalkar had come to the party together at about midnight and Jogdhankar had joined them later. The trio was seen leaving the party around 1.45am, sometime after Kukreja was seen crying while talking to someone on phone.

According to the police, at the party, Kukreja saw Jogdhankar having an intimate moment with Padalkar. Annoyed, she started to leave, taking the stairs. Soon, the duo followed her and got into an argument. The charge sheet states the spat went on till they reached fifth floor, where police found the first evidence of a physical fight between the three. Police claimed that Jogdhankar and Padalkar assaulted Kukreja by first pulling her hair and beating her with fist and kicks. The fact that the accused had also sustained injuries showed the deceased fought back her assailants initially, stated the charge sheet. The police said her head was banged at least at three spots, where her hair and bloodstains were found. The 19-year-old was thrown from the second floor and eventually her body was found at the bottom of the stairs with a pool of blood near her head by a resident, hours later. It added that many of the 48 injuries suffered by the deceased were bleeding injuries.

Police claimed the number and nature of injuries, including a skull fracture, suffered by the victim were indicative of the fact that those were not injuries caused during an ordinary scuffle erupted at the spur of the moment, but were caused with an intention to kill the deceased. The Khar police claimed the incident cannot be termed a culpable homicide not amounting to murder, but an intentional murder.

Though initially both the accused tried to distance themselves from the alleged murder, police claim to have found forensic evidence linking them to the assault in terms of blood stains matching with DNA of the deceased on Jogdhankar’s shirt and the bedsheet used by Padalkar to sleep at Yash’s residence.