Nagpur: Four get life term in 2011 ‘mistaken identity’ murder

[related-post]

With the incident causing a huge public outcry, the state government had appointed special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam to plead the case on behalf of the government. Nikam had argued that the main conspirator, Kunal Jaiswal, believed in “love me or quit the world” idea and was a “sex-starved wolf”. “Jaiswal, a teacher in a Katol school, betrayed extreme depravity by asking the girl (who he actually intended to kill) to spend a night with him. It was extremely cruel for a teacher to have done that,” Nikam had also said, urging the court to send Jaiswal and two of the “professional murderers” to the gallows.

Sessions Judge M W Chandwani, however, sentenced Jaiswal, his co-conspirator Pradip Sahare and two hired killers Shrikant Sonekar and Umesh Marathe to life imprisonment citing their “young age and lack of past criminal record” as reasons to reject Nikam’s plea for death sentence. Two other accused, Rameshwar Sonekar and Geeta Maldure, were acquitted for lack of evidence against the charge of destruction of evidence.

Jaiswal has also been directed to pay a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to Monika’s parents. Residents of Ramtek town, Monica’s parents Dasharath and Vandana Kirnapure expressed displeasure at the convicts not being sentenced to death.

Nikam told The Indian Express, “The convicts deserved death penalty for the heinous crime. We will move the higher court to challenge the quantum of punishment.”