Kanpur Jyoti murder case: Biscuit baron’s son, 5 others get lifer

KANPUR: Additional sessions judge (court No. 1) Ajay Kumar Tripathi IInd on Friday awarded life imprisonment to biscuit baron Om Prakash Shyamdasani’s son Peeyush, his (Peeyush’s) paramour Manisha Makhija and four others for the sensational murder of Peeyush’s wife Jyoti in 2014.
The presiding judge had held all the accused guilty on Thursday and ordered the police to take Peeyush, Manisha and Awadhesh in custody as they were on bail.Jyoti was allegedly kidnapped and stabbed to death by Ashish Kahyap, Awadhesh Chaturvedi, Sonu and Renu Kannaujia on July 27, 2014.
On the quantum of sentence, the presiding judge heard the arguments and submissions of the defence as well as the prosecution and punished the accused accordingly.
Defence counsel for mastermind Peeyush Shyamdasani pleaded that the accused belonged to a noble family and it was his first offence. He does not have any criminal history, therefore, he should be punished with a minimum sentence. Similar arguments were presented by the counsel of Manisha who pleaded that the court should sentence her with a minimum sentence.
Counsel for Ashish Kashyap pleaded on the point of sentence that Ashish was a poor person and his father was seriously ill. He was the lone bread earner of his family. Strict punishment would push his family to starvation, therefore, he should be punished with a minimum sentence and fine. Similar submissions were presented by the counsel of Awadhesh Chaturvedi and Sonu Kashyap.
The prosecution, led by special public prosecutor Damodar Mishra and Dharmendra Pal Singh jointly pleaded that in this case a horrible murder was executed which had shocked the entire society. “The court should punish the accused in such a way that a clear message should go to society. A husband had got murdered his wife for her no fault,” it was submitted.
The prosecution asked for capital punishment and in support of its claim, submitted some citations of the Apex court. However, the presiding judge observed in his order that the circumstances described in the Apex court rulings submitted by the prosecution were different and this case did not come under the ambit of rarest of the rare.
He punished Peeyush with 10 years rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 10,000 for the charges under section 120 B/364IPC (criminal conspiracy and kidnapping) and life imprisonment along along with fine for murder and criminal conspiracy.
Accused Manisha will be sentenced for life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 20,000 for the charges of murder and criminal conspiracy (302/120 b IPC).
Accused Ashish Kashyap, Awadhesh Chaturvedi, Renu alias Akhilesh, Kannaujia and Sonu Kashyap were sentenced for 10 years and fined to the tune of Rs 10,000 each on similar charges. All of them were also punished for life imprisonment along with fine.
The presiding judge in his order observed that if the accused failed to pay the fine, then they had to suffer other different terms of jail.
The judicial official observed that prosecution evidence clearly indicates that the principal accused Peeyush had planned the plan to murder his wife Jyoti due to his love affair with Manisha. And for that, he had used forged SIMs.
The evidence also disclosed that Peeyush had planned twice earlier to eliminate Jyoti on July 13 and July 20, 2014. The murder plan was executed with the use of forged SIMs and after the murder both SIMs were destroyed. But the call details of their mobile phone revealed the truth. There was no direct evidence in this case but circumstances and evidence and story knitted by the prosecution disclosed the truth.
The relationship between Manisha and Peeyush was very much clear; they had chatted more than 5,500 times on mobile. The prosecution had very well proved its case hence the accused were being punished.
Special prosecutor Damodar Mishra stated that if his client would ask for an enhancement of sentence, then he would prefer an appeal before the High Court. Shankar Nagdev, father of the Jyoti, commented that truth won and he had full faith in the Indian judiciary.