A man who lured many women into marrying him and murdered one of the women who threatened to blow the lid on him, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday.
A man who lured many women into marrying him and murdered one of the women who threatened to blow the lid on him, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday.
Additional Sessions Judge M P Kukday convicted Darshan Shivdasani, 30, on charges of murdering his wife Payal Ganatra, 30, at his sister’s house at Oshiwara on April 5, 2008. As per the prosecution’s case, Shivdasani, a divorcee, married Ganatra, also a divorcee and an architect by profession, in 2007. They met on a matrimonial website. After marriage, Ganatra realised that Shivdasani was a fraud and was married to another woman.
“She filed a divorce petition and hired a detective to find out more about him. The detective told her that he was married to a woman at Mira Road,” said additional public prosecutor, Dilip Shah. Ganatra had got in touch with the other woman and the two decided to start proceedings against Shivdasani, the prosecution claimed.
The prosecution claimed that Shivdasani called Ganatra for a meeting to his sister Sonia’s house at Oshiwara. As per evidence on record, on April 5, 2008, the watchman of the building who testified said he saw Ganatra going to the house.
When Sonia arrived home at 6 pm, she saw Ganatra lying in a pool of blood. Ganatra was stabbed twice in her chest. Sonia called the Oshiwara police who registered a case of murder.
Meanwhile, Shivdasani fled from Mumbai and went to Kolhapur first and then to Pune, staying in hotels under false names. The police traced him to a hotel in Pune where he tried to commit suicide by taking sleeping pills and even left a suicide note.
“Shivdasani survived and the suicide note acted as an admission of guilt. The police also recovered articles like Ganatra’s identity cards, and debit cards,” Shah said.
Shah examined 18 witnesses including Sonia, who turned hostile in the case. “The evidence was circumstantial but we connected all the dots,” Shah said.
Throughout the hearing of the case, Ganatra’s father, Kamlesh helped the prosecution in the case. “I’m very happy I got justice from the court,” he said.
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