Murder of ex-chief of child rights panel: Navi Mumbai court sentences three to life imprisonment

Mumbai, May 20 (PTI) A sessions court in Navi Mumbai has sentenced three persons to life imprisonment for the 2014 murder of the former chief of Maharashtra's child rights panel, saying while the offence was heinous and cruel, it does not fall under the rarest of rare category.

The Panvel court last week convicted the three accused, including the victim's domestic help, and sentenced them to life imprisonment.

Additional sessions judge S C Shinde, in the judgment made available on Tuesday, said the substantive evidence of witnesses, documentary and circumstantial evidence established the fact that the accused committed the murder with a motive of robbery.

It noted that while the accused have committed a heinous offence in a cruel manner, the case does not fall under the category of "rarest of rare", where the maximum punishment of death should be imposed.

"Life imprisonment is the rule, and death sentence is an exception," the court said.

Meenakshi Jaiswal, advocate and former chairperson of the Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, was murdered by her domestic help and three accomplices for money.

On December 19, 2014, 46-year-old Jaiswal, wife of the then additional sessions judge at Malegaon, was found with her throat slit and fingers severed inside her house at Kharghar.

Domestic help Vinayak Chavan and his three accomplices, Maninder Bajwa, Suraj Jaiswal and Surendrakumar Batra, were arrested in the case. Batra died pending trial.

The sessions court on May 17 convicted the three accused and sentenced them to life imprisonment.

The court noted that the whole case relied on circumstantial evidence, and in such cases, the question of motive becomes important.

The court noted that there is rarely a human act that is not motivated by something.

It said in the present case, the main motive of the accused persons was to rob the victim, as they were aware of her financial condition and the fact that she lived alone.

The court further noted that no doubt there are some defects in the investigation, but this cannot be grounds for acquittal of the accused if the evidence produced by the prosecution was "reliable, trustworthy and inspires confidence".

"To err is human, and the investigating officer cannot be an exception to that. In the present case, I do not find that certain defects in the investigation impact the case of the prosecution," the court said in its 173-page judgment. PTI SP ARU