A sessions court on Monday rejected the bail application of 19-year-old Diya Padalkar, accused in the murder of her childhood friend and next-door neighbour Jhanvi Kukreja on New Year’s eve.
In her bail plea filed early last month through advocate Ashok Mishra, Padalkar had stated that she was herself injured the night of the incident on New Year’s eve due to a fall on the stairs of the building in which the party was held and hence was in a delicate mental and physical condition during the alleged offence. She reasoned that this negated her presence and involvement in the offence. She called the police’s story of her violent attack on Jhanvi a fabricated one.
“Applicant herself was injured and hospitalised by her friends and father having no knowledge about the alleged accident, which is substantial proof showing her innocence and also thereby clearly showing that the Applicant did not even have the knowledge about the alleged offence,” her plea had stated.
Jhanvi's mother Nidhi had opposed the bail plea through her advocates Rizwan Merchant, Trivankumar Karnani and Gayatri Gokhale.
The Khar police in its reply filed in response to the bail application on 11 Feb, had strongly objected to it. Pointing to 48 injuries all over Jhanvi’s body, many of them grievous and very grievous in nature, the police had termed the murder intentional and not an incident that happened over a quarrel that broke out suddenly. Both Padalkar and her co-accused and Kukreja’s common friend Shree Jogdhankar have helped each other in the crime, the police had stated.
On Monday, the court also heard the bail application of Jogdhankar, which was filed some days after Padalkar’s plea. The police had strongly objected to this bail plea too.
