Jhanvi Kukreja murder case transferred to a new court

MUMBAI: The trial in the 2021 New Year’s Eve murder of 19-year-old Jhanvi Kukreja has come to a halt after the case was unexpectedly transferred to a special court due to administrative reasons, despite the fact that twenty-eight witnesses have already been examined by the jurisdictional court.
The court on Friday dismissed the application filed by the prosecution to send the case back to the regular court.
Janhvi, 19, was found dead on the staircase of a building at Khar on December 31, 2020. She was accompanied by her boyfriend Shree Jogdhankar and friend Diya Padalkar to a New Year’s Eve party. The Khar police in their chargesheet had claimed that Jhanvi was physically assaulted by her boyfriend and his friend Padalkar. Her head was banged on the walls and staircase railings of Bhagwati Heights at Khar. She, police claimed, was dragged from the fifth-floor stairs to the second floor where she was thrown off. Jhanvi had suffered 48 injuries, including a skull fracture, which caused her death.
Special Public Prosecutor Pradip Gharat, representing the state, alongside advocate Trivankumar Karnani, representing the victim’s mother, filed an application under section 409 (withdrawal of cases and appeals by sessions judges) of the criminal procedure code. The application seeks to refer the case to the Principal Sessions Judge with the aim of restoring it to the original court, where 28 witness testimonies have already been recorded.
The prosecution revealed that the case was scheduled for further evidence recording in a Special Women’s Court on August 6, 2024. However, it was unexpectedly transferred to a different court with instructions to attend the new jurisdiction. This transfer has prompted concerns from the prosecution, which expressed surprise and frustration over the abrupt shift and its potential impact on the proceedings. Moreover, the prosecution raised serious concerns regarding the recent transfer of the case to a different court.
The prosecution stated that an inquiry into the transfer revealed that no application was made requesting the transfer of the case. The official records indicate that the case was moved for “administrative reasons.” The prosecution contended that the withdrawal of the case from the original court and its reassignment to another court constituted an illegal act, as the trial had already commenced with substantial progress in witness examination.
Additional sessions judge AU Kadam on Friday dismissed the application filed which sought to restore the Jhanvi Kukreja murder case to its original court. The court stated that it lacked the authority to adjudicate on applications under Sections 408 (power of sessions judge to transfer cases and appeals) and 409 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and directed the applicants to submit their application to the appropriate authority for further consideration.