Mumbai New Year case: It was a pre-planned murder, claims victim’s mother

Nidhi Kukreja, the mother of 19-year-old Janhvi Kukreja who was found dead in a Khar building on January 1 following a New Year’s Eve party, has claimed that it was a pre-planned murder

Nidhi Kukreja, the mother of 19-year-old Janhvi Kukreja who was found dead in a Khar building on January 1 following a New Year’s Eve party, has claimed that it was a pre-planned murder.

Nidhi on Thursday opposed the bail application of Diya Padalkar, one of the accused in the case and a daughter of Kukreja’s neighbour. (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT PHOTO)

Nidhi on Thursday opposed the bail application of Diya Padalkar, one of the accused in the case and a daughter of Kukreja’s neighbour. Padalkar had filed bail plea earlier this month.

Jhanvi was found dead on the ground floor of a building in Khar, where she had gone to attend a New Year Eve party with her friends. The police have booked Janvi’s friends Padalkar and Shree Ambadas Jogdhankar.

Nidhi in her plea to intervene in and oppose Padalkar’s bail application claimed that “the accused jointly persuaded and convinced the intervener (Nidhi) and her husband to take the victim Jhanvi to a New Year party, which was supposed to be at the house of one Yash Ahuja, with a preplanned intention to kill the elder daughter of the intervener.”

Padalkar, in her bail plea, has claimed that she had no role to play in Jhanvi’s death. Explaining the sequence of events, Padalkar has claimed that, “Applicant (Padalkar) was feeling dizzy, the applicant while climbing down the staircase lost her balance and got severely hurt on the lip portion of her face and was bleeding profusely.”

She further claimed that when she was hurt, she went to Ahuja’s flat to clean the bleeding. The bleeding, however, did not stop and therefore she was taken to a hospital.

Padaklar’s plea claimed that “material instances and witness statements are enough to rule out the mere possibility of the applicant’s presence in the alleged offence against the said deceased that took place on the intervening night of December 31, 2020, and January 1, 2021.”

The bail plea is scheduled for hearing on February 17.