KALYAN: More than eight years after a woman had been murdered at her Ambernath home and three college students including a minor were arrested for the crime, two of them including a woman who was then pursuing an MBA, were on Monday awarded life imprisonment by the trial court at Kalyan.
It was on October 17, 2014 that home-maker Snehal Umrodkar was found dead at her home with the throat slit and a gold mangalsutra missing. Subsequently, three collegians were arrested - Virendra Ajay Naidu (then 22), a BCom student at an Ambarnath college, Ashwini Singh (then 22) an MBA student and a 17-year-old engineering student - all residents of Ambernath.
The police said that Naidu, who was a childhood friend of the woman's son, Aditya, had planned the murder with his other two friends. The investigation revealed that Naidu had been repeatedly failing on one subject at college. He needed cash to get his marks altered by paying a bribe for which he needed the money and committed the offence, the police said.
The police told the court that Naidu was a childhood friend of Aditya. Naidu was very close to the Umrodkars and was a regular visitor to their home. On the day of the murder, he had chatted with Aditya and during the course of the conversation clandestinely checked with him about the whereabouts of other family members to find out when his mother would be alone at home, the police said.
The three then landed up at the Umrodkar home, wearing gloves, overpowered the home-maker, tied her up and slashed her throat.
Public prosecutors Sachin Kulkarni and Sanjay Gosavi representated the case to prove the role of the accused.
Sessions judge RG Waghmare awarded life imprisonment and penalty of Rs 5,000 to Naidu and Singh for murder (section 302 of Indian Penal Code) and 10 years imprisonment for robbery with a fine of Rs 2,000.
The home-maker used to live with her husband, Vivek and son Aditya. On the day of the murder, Aditya had gone to a relative's house at Mulund while Vivek was out for some work.
When Vivek returned home around 9.15pm, he opened the door to the sight of his wife lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Her spectacles were broken, her mouth had a tape on it and her hands were tied. The throat had been slit with some sharp weapon. Only the gold mangalsutra that the home-maker wore was missing.
The court said that the penalty, if recovered, be handed over to the home-maker's son.
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