Surat: Fenil Goyani convicted of Grishma Vekariya murder, sentence today

Earlier, Goyani was brought from Surat central jail under strict security as people had gathered on the court premises in view of the hearing in the murder case in which regular day-to-day proceedings concluded on April 6 and the sentence was to be delivered on April 16.

The hearing got postponed because Shaikh did not appear in the court on the date. Members of the Vekariya family were present in the courtroom on Thursday afternoon.

District government pleader Nayan Sukhadwala said, “We have done a lot of hard work and finally we are satisfied that the court had taken into consideration the points put by us before it. We have requested capital punishment in this case.”

Grishma’s brother Dhruv Vekariya also said her family wanted Goyani to be given the death penalty. “He has been harassing us for the past one year. Everybody including Grishma had been tensed for a year,” he said.

Defence lawyer Shaikh said he would appeal against the order. “We are not satisfied with the court order. We will go to the Gujarat High Court for justice, because some of the points we had put before the court were not looked at. We have submitted an application to the court to hear us before awarding capital punishment. The hearing will be on Friday,” the lawyer said.

On February 12, 2022, Goyani allegedly slit the throat of Vekariya in front of her family members and neighbours. He is also alleged to have stabbed Dhruv and his uncle Shaileshbhai Vekariya as they tried to rescue her.

On seeing police on the spot, he injured himself with the same knife. Several people captured the incident on their smartphones.

The police, who first took Goyani to a hospital in Kamrej, arrested him on February 16 on charges under Indian Penal Code Sections 302, 307, 354(d) 1 (E), 342, 504 and 506(2) on the basis of a complaint lodged by Dhruv at the Kamrej station.

Within five days, the police submitted a chargesheet of 2,500 pages at the Kathor court in the district. The chargesheet contained statements of over 190 witnesses, documentary evidence, scientific and medical evidence and CCTV footage.

The murder case was shifted to the Surat sessions court for a speedy trial. Sources said that out of the 190 witnesses, 105 were examined during the trial.