A sessions court in Mumbai on Monday convicted two colleagues for the murder of Kirti Vyas, a finance manager at BBlunt salon in Andheri, who was reported missing by her family six years ago.
Sessions judge M G Deshpande convicted Khushi Ajay Sahjwani and Siddhesh Shantaram Tamhankar, colleagues of Vyas, with murder, kidnapping for murder, wrongful restraint and destruction of evidence, among other sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The court is likely to decide on the quantum of sentence to be awarded to convicts on Tuesday, May 28. The maximum punishment in the case is death row.
Vyas, then 28, was reported missing on March 16, 2018, after she left for work from her residence in South Mumbai. Nearly two months after her disappearance, the police claimed two of her colleagues had killed her. The woman’s body was never found but the prosecution had claimed that circumstances show that the colleagues killed her in a moving car after picking her up from her residence on the morning of March 16, 2018, due to issues at work. The two denied their involvement, contesting that they picked her up or caused her disappearance.
Earlier this month, the session court concluded arguments in one of the rare criminal trials where a court had to decide on a murder charge even when the body is not found. The police filed a nearly 962-page chargesheet against the two alleging murder, with statements from Vyas’s father, sister, colleagues, and other experts. The police mainly relied on traces of Vyas’s blood found in Sahjwani’s car, CCTV footage, and the Call Detail Records (CDR) of the accused.
In the chargesheet, the Mumbai police said the main motive for the alleged murder was Kirti Vyas pulling up Tamhankar, her junior at work. The police also said she was aware of the relationship between Sahjwani and Tamhankar and they did not want her to reveal it at work.
According to the police, while Vyas and Tamhankar worked on the third floor of the building in Andheri, Sahjwani was the academy manager on the second floor, where the two met and got into a relationship.