Khar murder: 48 injury marks found on victim's body

Diya Padalkar at Bandra court on Tuesday

The Khar police on Tuesday submitted the postmortem report of 19-year-old psychology student Jhanavi Kukreja to the court during the remand hearing of the accused duo, Diya Padalkar and Shree Jogdhankar. Police said that Kukreja had around 48 injury marks, suffered allegedly during her brutal murder on New Year's Eve in Bhagwati Heights building in Khar. The police are waiting for a drug test report of the accused and the victim to determine if they had used drugs or consumed alcohol.

The Bandra magistrate court extended the accused's police custody till January 14. The police have collected 27 pieces of evidence. Police sources said they are also planning a psychological evaluation of the duo as they claim that they are traumatised. The report would be submitted to the court.

Senior Inspector and investigating officer of the case, Gajanan Kabdule, said, "The autopsy found 48 injury marks on Jhanavi's body. The 27 pieces of evidence from the crime scene include Jhanavi's hair, chappal, blood and other things, all of them against the accused. The CCTV footage from the building shows both accused entering and leaving the society. No other people have been seen entering the society. There is no CCTV camera on the floor where the incident took place. The accused are still not revealing anything about the incident." Kabdule said they are also tracing the taxi driver hired by Jogdhankar after the murder took place for questioning.

Jogdhankar's advocate

Ganesh Gupta claimed that police are forcing him to sign on a blank paper and raised the issue of his injuries not matching the sequence of events. At the court, Jhanavi's mother, Niddhi, requested the accused to reveal the truth. "The accused are still giving false information. They don't seem to have any guilt," she told mid-day.

Jan 14
Day till which police custody has been extended