The Bombay High Court division bench of Justices A S Gadkari and Kamal Khata on Wednesday issued a notice to the state and Diya Padalkar, who was acquitted in the 2021 murder of her friend Jhanvi Kukreja (19) following a New Year's Eve party on the terrace of a Khar building.
On January 31, a sessions court convicted and sentenced Jhanvi's friend Shree Jogdhankar (26) to life imprisonment for the murder, but acquitted 24-year-old Padalkar giving her the benefit of doubt. In March, Kukreja's mother Niddhi moved the Bombay High Court against the acquittal.
Niddhi, in her appeal through advocate Trivankumar Karnani, claimed that the trial court erred in appreciating evidence against Padalkar despite her alleged presence at the spot.
Jhanvi was found in a pool of blood on the ground floor of Bhagwati Heights on the morning of January 1, 2021. It was alleged that she was dragged down the stairs from the fifth floor of the building after a fight over Jogdhankar's intimacy with Padalkar. A post-mortem report showed she suffered 48 injuries.
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About the Author
Swati Deshpande is Senior editor at The Times of India, Mumbai, where she has been covering courts for over a decade. She is passionate about law and works towards enlightening people about their statutory, legal and fundamental rights. She makes it her job to decipher for the public the truth, be it in an intricate civil dispute or in a gruesome criminal case.
