Life,not death,for mother & daughter

The case dates back to July 2,2006,when Dr Deepak’s wife Dr Smitha Mahajan lodged a kidnap complaint at the Prabhat police station in Pune. She said someone claiming to be from the Omkar Charitable Trust had called her husband and offered him a post of consultant. Her husband had gone to meet the caller to discuss the prospect but he was kidnapped and the family started receiving calls demanding Rs 25 lakh for his release.

On July 7,the anti-extortion cell of the Pune police,then headed by Inspector Balkrishna Agashe,arrested the Deosthale mother-daughter duo,residents of Uttam Nagar.

According to the police,the Deosthales had called Dr Mahajan to Shantanu Lodge in the city where they injected him with sedatives,an overdose of which caused his death. The Deosthalis then meticulously hacked his body,using surgical instruments. The police recovered Mahajan’s body parts wrapped in plastic bags from various spots in Katraj Ghat and Nashik Phata. His head and limbs,however,could not be traced.

In December 27,2007,Pune Fast Track Judge Vilas Patil awarded death sentence to the Deosthales after holding them guilty of abduction and murder of the doctor. The two had refused to engage a lawyer in the Pune court and chose to defend themselves. When the case came up before the High Court,the judges found that Deosthalis had defended themselves badly,and had not examined certain vital witnesses.

In the High Court too,the Deosthales conducted the arguments themselves though they had engaged a lawyer initially,forcing the court to appoint advocate Rohini Salian as an amicus curiae. Police said that Leena was a practising lawyer at Nashik since 1982. Her husband Anil died a few months after their divorce in 1990. Deepti was a first-year MBBS student at Nashik and an aspiring model.