The Khar Police has said, in its response to the bail application of the main accused 23-year-old Shree Jogdhankar in the Jhanvi Kukreja murder case, that his defence that he himself was brutally assaulted by some people at the New Year’s Eve party is ‘lame’. It pointed out that he has not revealed who these people were nor the reason for the assault.
Shree had claimed, in his plea, that he had been brutally assaulted by some people and he is unable to remember who they are as he was under the influence of alcohol. He had further said that these same assaulters could have attacked the deceased Jhanvi, 19, of whose murder he and their common friend Diya Padalkar are accused. He had even said, in his application, that it is possible he had tried to intervene when they were assaulting Jhanvi and could have been hurt in the process.
The prosecution has said, if the defence is accepted, then he has not revealed what reason there was for someone to attack him. Could it be said that he is hiding the same? it asked. It said, till date, he has not said a word as to who assaulted him over what enmity or quarrel.
The police have questioned that, if this were true, then why had he lied to the doctor at Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital that he had sustained injuries due to a fall in Mahim. If he were innocent, he would have revealed the circumstances, it added. When a person gets seriously injured in an assault, he would complain to the police about it, it pointed out. Further it said that this defence is newly presented before the court and had not been taken during the earlier bail plea that was rejected.
Further, police have pointed out that, while all the witnesses have unanimously seen the deceased proceed with the two accused from the terrace, his plea has no mention of how she was found dead on the ground floor of the building. If his educational qualification and family status are taken into consideration, it said that the offence becomes even more serious. Referring to his criminal antecedents wherein he was booked for an assault case earlier, it said that he cannot be said to be a responsible and family person. It said that he belongs to an upper-middle class family and may use his strong financial position to influence the witnesses.
Shree’s advocate Mahesh Vaswani said the police has no legally sustainable evidence to blame the youth and that they have not submitted medical reports that show injuries to Shree in the chargesheet, which raises a question mark.
