Six of family, domestic help killed: The Rathi murders that shook Pune in the 1990s

While Rajpurohit turned approver, Chaudhary and co-accused Gehlot were held guilty by a sessions court in Pune in 1998 and sentenced to death. The death sentences were upheld by the Bombay High Court in 1999 and the Supreme Court in 2000.

On March 27, after over 28 years in prison – 25 of those on death row – the Supreme Court ordered 42-year-old Chaudhary to “be set free forthwith” while ruling that he was a juvenile when he was sentenced to death in 1998. Gehlot continues to be on death row at the Yerawada Central Jail in Pune.

Speaking to The Indian Express, retired ACP Vinod Satav, who was part of the team that investigated the case, said the accused “never claimed (during the trial and sentencing) that he was a minor”. “(But) I cannot comment on the Supreme Court’s order,” he said.

Yerawada Central Prison, where Narayan Chetanram Chaudhary spent several years on death row before he was moved to Nagpur Central Jail. (Express photo)

Pune-based senior lawyer Harshad Nimbalkar, who represented Chaudhary in the inquiry conducted by the Pune district judge, said, “He was of a strong build at the time and was not aware of his rights. Moreover, the bone ossification test performed to ascertain the age was not performed by Pune police at the time.”

Senior advocate Ujwal Nikam, who was the Special Public Prosecutor in the case, said, “The accused can take the plea of juvenility at any stage of the legal proceeding, even at the Supreme Court. The question remains only of the authenticity of the documents produced by the accused. Because I was not part of the inquiry proceeding, I will not be able to comment further.”

Asked about Chaudhary’s release, Sanjay Rathi, who lost six members of his family in the crime, declined to comment.

Sanjay had in an interview to The Indian Express in August 2015 said that on August 26, 1994, after lunch with family, he had left with his brother-in-law for some “business-related work”. While his father was at the family’s sweet shop, his younger brother was in Mumbai and the other members — all women and children — were home.

“In the evening, when we returned after work, my father told me he had been trying to call home but no one had answered. I reached home soon after. When no one opened the door, I sent someone to the shop to fetch the duplicate keys. There was no one in the drawing room. I started checking the rooms and saw my family members in a pool of blood,” he had said.

Since there were no eyewitnesses to the crime, the court relied on the testimony of Rajpurohit, who turned approver.

According to the police probe and the FIR lodged at the Kothrud police station in Pune, Rajupurohit, who worked at the Rathi family’s Sagar Sweet Mart for about three months, quit a few days before the murders.

He allegedly conspired with Gehlot and Chaudhary – his colleagues at another sweet shop from where he was allegedly sacked earlier that year – and decided to rob the Rathi family to earn some quick money.

On August 26, while Rajpurohit, who was known to the Rathis, gained entry into the house, his accomplices allegedly barged in after which the trio killed the family members and allegedly made away with cash, gold and other valuables. The probe said the accused fled to Rajasthan after committing the crime, from where they were arrested – Chaudhary on September 5, 1994, and the other two in October 1994.

At Bombay Vihar (now Mumbai Vihar and Caterers) on Laxmi Road, where all the three accused worked, owner Yogesh Gathani was not available for comment. He had in an earlier interview to The Indian Express said that all the accused were in their early 20s.