MUMBAI: Six months after 19-year-old Santacruz student, Diya Padalkar, was arrested in the New Year’s murder of her childhood friend, Jhanvi Kukreja, a sessions court on Friday granted her bail.
The victim’s mother Nidhi Kukreja’s lawyers moved a plea seeking a stay on the order.
Read AlsoMumbai: Trial court rejects bail plea of Diya Padalkar in teen murder caseMUMBAI: Sessions court while rejecting bail plea of Diya Padalkar in the teen murder case at Khar said “as per the photographs of the spot and other documents clearly show that the deceased was brutally murdered.” The Judge M M Umar said, “From CCTV footage it is seen that soon after the incident,However, rejecting the plea, additional sessions judge MM Umar said, “Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, so also considering that the prosecution case against the applicant is based on circumstantial evidence, it is not desirable to stay the bail order.” The court, however, rejected the bail plea of Padalkar’s co accused, Shree Jogdhankar (22).
The accused, both close friends of Kukreja (19), are accused of assaulting her on the staircase and murdering her after they attended a New Year’s party on the terrace of a Khar building.
Kukreja’s final post-mortem report she had suffered 48 injuries, many of them grave.
The Khar police chargesheet said that while Padalkar stayed back in the house of the host with a cut lip claiming that she did not know how she suffered the injury, Jogdhankar left the party, met another set of friends and subsequently sought treatment at Sion Hospital.
Padalkar’s earlier plea for bail was rejected.
Seeking bail for the second time soon after the chargesheet was submitted in March, Padalkar’s lawyer, Ashok Mishra told the court that the document did not show that she had committed the murder especially when there was “no ocular evidence” to prove even her participation.
Cops had alleged that the accused had attacked Kukreja after she was upset over them being intimate.
However, Padalkar’s bail plea said that the witnesses present in the party had instead seen the victim and Jogdhankar together in the dark corner area of the terrace and on the staircase of the building where the alleged crime took place.
“However, none have witnessed any unusual or intimate acts between accused number one (Jogdhankar) and the applicant (Padalkar),” the bail plea said.
Padalkar’s plea also said that the witnesses at the party had seen her highly drunk, “wobbling” and continuously vomiting.
“..if we go by the statement of witnesses at the party, at the alleged period of time ie 1.30 am to 2.15 am when the alleged offence took place, the applicant was either found sleeping on terrace or in the bedroom of the host Yash Ahuja’s flat, which is situated in the same building,” the plea said.
The prosecution had strongly opposed the bail pleas of both accused.