Man, 2 associates sentenced to life for murdering wife

MUMBAI: The sessions court on Monday sentenced a man and two of his accompanists to life imprisonment for conspiring to kill and stabbing his wife Beena Dedhia to

MUMBAI: The sessions court on Monday sentenced a man and two of his accompanists to life imprisonment for conspiring to kill and stabbing his wife Beena Dedhia to death because he was in a relationship with her brother’s wife.

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Last week, sessions judge Sanjay Patil had convicted the husband, Jitin Dedhia, along with Najim Khan, a taxi driver and Hasrudin Malik, a juice vendor for conspiring to kill Beena while she had gone for a morning walk with Jitin.

The special public prosecutor Rohini Salian with assistant sub inspector Eknath Kadam, while arguing for the quantum of punishment, pleaded for life imprisonment since it was not a ‘rarest of rare’ case. The court sentenced the three accused for life, asking Dedhia to pay a fine of Rs 60000 and the other two to pay Rs 25000.

The two accused attacked Beena in Parel on the morning of October 27, 2009. The police reported that they slit her throat and stabbed her husband. However, investigation revealed that it was Jitin who had conspired to kill Beena as he was in love with Beena’s sister-in-law - Rupal Chheda.

Jitin had allegedly made several attempts to convince Beena for a divorce. When she disagreed, he conspired to eliminate her. He had previously made three attempts, but failed.

Initially, Jitin and Rupal were discharged by the sessions court. However, the probe shifted in Jitin’s direction after the police checked his call records.

As per reports, Dedhia had paid Rs 1 lakh to Malik and Khan for the job. At 5 am on October 27, 2009, Jitin informed Malik that he was going for a walk with his wife. Arriving on a motorbike, the two accused attacked Beena on her neck with a chopper.