Murder turns into dowry case

PUNE, June 8: The Nisha Khairnar Patil murder case took a new turn late last night as the Kothrud police arrested her husband Sunil along ...

PUNE, June 8: The Nisha Khairnar Patil murder case took a new turn late last night as the Kothrud police arrested her husband Sunil along with his parents on charges of killing her over dowry demands. Nisha8217;s brother-in-law Vikas, however, could not be arrested till late in the evening.

Sunil Khairnar 29, Vikas, their father Ramdas 53 and mother Rajani 48 were remanded to police custody till June 14 by Judicial Magistrate First Class A R Soni this afternoon.

The trio was arrested after Nisha8217;s father Gajanan D Patil, a 81-year-old government contractor from Jalgaon, recorded a statement alleging that they had murdered Nisha, inspector Vishwas Chaugule from Kothrud police said.

The Khairnars8217; were demanding that Nisha8217;s father should give them Rs 50,000 to purchase the flat at Popularnagar in Warje Malwadi, disclosed assistant public prosecutor APP Sadashiv Nikam before the court.

Complying with the demand, he added, Gajanan Patil paid Rs 25,000 in form of two demand drafts but the Khairnars started harassing her within three months after she got married, he added. Nisha, who has done a course in law after graduation, had married with Sunil on May 26, 1997.

The APP also claimed that Nisha had made a telephone call to her parents around the time she was attacked on June 6 evening. During the telephonic conversation with her father she had complained that Vikas had threatened to murder her. She had also told her father that Sunil was at home at the time, he added.

Defence counsel Inderjit Singh Gill argued that the remand report submitted before the court by the prosecution did not provide adequate grounds for the police custody for the accused.

Story continues below this ad

He claimed that Sunil and his parents were not involved in the murder. Sunil was on duty at the time when Nisha was attacked while his parents were at Bhusaval, he claimed.

He also stated that instead of rushing injured Nisha to hospital and lodging complaint against Vikas, Sunil would have tried to destroy the evidence had he been involved in it. While denying the charges that the Khairnars harassed Nisha, he pointed out that Sunil8217;s parents stayed at Bhusaval while Nisha stayed in Pune.