‘Please give me one more chance,’ 16-year-old daughter pleaded as father beat her to death over pre-NEET low grades

Deputy Superintendent of Police (Vita Division) Vipul Patil said, “After the arrest, the father was remanded in police custody for three days. He has now been remanded in judicial custody from Wednesday. Probe suggests that she had obtained good grades in the tests conducted by the college earlier. It was a preparatory test for NEET conducted internally by the college. However, in the latest tests, she had obtained lower grades. We have contacted the college and have asked them to provide us the details of these tests and her results. The postmortem has revealed that the deceased had multiple serious injuries which led to the death.”

Sadhana was a student at Khebudkar College at the taluka headquarters of Atpadi, located around 30 kms from Nelkaranji village. The test she had taken which she allegedly scored low grades in was the preparatory tests conducted by the college for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).

Sadhana had been staying at a hostel in Atpadi for the last three years. At the time of the incident, she had been visiting her home, according to the FIR filed by her mother Priti (41). Sadhana has a brother, Digvijay.

In her FIR to the police, Priti stated, “Sadhana had come home from the hostel on June 18. On the night of June 20, we all had dinner around 9 pm. Digvijay and I went to sleep in our rooms on the first floor of the house. Sadhana and my husband were in our drawing room downstairs. My husband was angry with Sadhana because she had obtained low grades in a test conducted at her college. And because of this Sadhana and my husband started arguing. As we could hear them, Digvijay and I came downstairs. We saw my husband beating Sadhana with a wooden handle of a stone grinder.”

Priti further said in the FIR, “As my husband was beating Sadhana he kept saying that if she had studied well, she could have obtained better grades. Sadhana was saying ‘I will study better next time. Please give me one more chance’. As he kept beating her saying a lot of money had been spent on her education, Digvijay and I pulled Sadhana away. She, however, suddenly collapsed and became unresponsive.”

According to the FIR, Sadhana’s brother then called a doctor known to the family, who advised them to take her to a hospital in Atpadi. The family members took Sadhana to a private hospital in Atpadi where she passed away on the morning of June 21. After Sadhana’s last rites, an FIR was registered by Priti in the early hours of June 22 after which the father was arrested by police on the charges of murder under section 103 (1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. He has also been booked under Juvenile Justice Act section 75 which pertains to punishment for cruelty to a child.