Mumbai: The Thane session court has sentenced a 29-year-old man to life imprisonment for the 2016 murder of a nine-month-pregnant woman and her husband, who were killed for conducting an interfaith marriage. Presided over by Judge D S Deshmukh, the court found the man guilty of murdering the couple and their unborn child.
The court called the crime a “blind murder” and stated that no sympathy or mercy would be shown to the accused. However, the court ruled that the case did not warrant the death penalty as it did not qualify as a “rarest of the rare” case.
The prosecution examined 12 witnesses in the case, all of whom supported the charges. The court observed that there were no direct eyewitnesses, making it a case based on circumstantial evidence. However, the prosecution effectively proved the chain of evidence.
The court held that the case relied on six factors: homicidal death, last seen theory, motive, conduct of the accused, recovery of the weapon, and forensic evidence. The prosecution proved all these factors beyond reasonable doubt.
According to the prosecution, Vijayshankar Yadav and Sufiya Mansuri, residents of Hasanganj, Uttar Pradesh, had performed an interfaith marriage and eloped. Their parents reported them missing to the Hasanganj police, who later found the couple and presented them to their families. As both were adults, no charges were filed. The couple then moved to Thane, Mumbai, to start a new life.
Later, Sufiya reconnected with her family in Uttar Pradesh and informed them about her pregnancy and the upcoming baby shower ceremony. Her cousin, Shafique Mansuri, visited the couple under the pretence of offering congratulations.
However, Shafique had a sinister motive. He believed Sufiya’s interfaith marriage had dishonoured their family and, to “teach them a lesson,” he stabbed the couple to death, also killing their unborn child. A neighbour identified Shafique, having seen him at the couple’s home days before the murder.
