A sessions court on Wednesday rejected the bail application filed by 22-year-old Shree Jogdhankar, accused in the murder of his friend Jhanvi Kukreja, 19, on New Year’s eve.
The hospitality student had sought temporary bail for three months to appear for his final exams in the undergraduate course. He had further said that he had himself been brutally assaulted by some persons at the New Year party and had to be hospitalized.
The Khar police had opposed his bail plea and told the court that he is better off preparing for exams from jail. The police had said that many prisoners, including political prisoners have studied while being in jail, some have even written books and he is better off studying in jail. He could make a separate plea for allowing police escort so he can appear for the examination, it said. The Khar police had further pointed out that being so educated, his knowingly consuming addictive substances is a serious issue.
Regarding his claim of being brutally beaten at the party by some person who he had not identified, the police questioned why he lied to doctors at Sion hospital that he had been hurt by falling on the road at Mahim. Further, it asked why he had not approached the police if he had been assaulted.
Jogdhankar had also argued in his application that if such an incident had taken place in the apartment, why no watchmen, liftmen or residents had witnessed anything. The police said regarding this, that there was no liftman for the particular lift, the watchmen were at the gate outside the building and the residents did not witness anything as the incident took place between 1.30 PM and 2.15 PM.
Kukreja’s mother Nidhi had also opposed the bail plea through her advocates Rizwan Merchant, Trivankumar Karnani and Gayatri Gokhale. A detailed order is yet to be made available.
