Domestic help, 2 co-accused get life term for 2014 murder of Maharashtra’s ex-child rights panel chief

NAVI MUMBAI: Almost 11 years after Meenakshi Jaiswal, advocate, activist and former chairperson of the Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, was murdered by her domestic help and three accomplices for money, the Panvel sessions court on Saturday sentenced three of them to life imprisonment. The fourth accused died during the trial, reports George Mendonca.On Dec 19, 2014, 46-year-old Jaiswal, wife of then additional sessions judge at Malegaon, Santosh Jaiswal, was found with her throat slit and fingers severed inside her flat at Vastu Vihar Celebration building in Kharghar. The body was found in a pool of blood by her family doctor who had visited the flat after repeated calls from her husband went unanswered.‘House help & aide who died were masterminds’The convicts — domestic help Vinayak Thavra Chavan, electrician Maninder Singh Bajwa alias Mithu, and carpenter Suraj Rambhavan Jaiswal — were found guilty of conspiring to rob and ultimately killing Jaiswal. The fourth accused, Surendrakumar Chamanlal Batra, an accomplice, died during the trial.The house help and the accomplice, who died during trial, were the masterminds, police said. They contracted the other two to commit robbery at the flat. As the electrician had done some work at the advocate’s flat, she let him enter the house with the carpenter. The domestic help was with them. The fourth had tipped off the domestic help about the advocate’s plan to buy property. The three who entered the house asked the advocate for water. As she turned around, they stabbed her with sharp weapons. They decamped with cash and valuables of a collective value of Rs 2.5 lakh.All three were handed two concurrent life sentences for murder and robbery. The electrician and carpenter were also given seven years of rigorous imprisonment for armed dacoity and were fined Rs 70,000 each.Ujwal Nikam was special public prosecutor, and was assisted by advocate Prasad Patil. Additional sessions judge S S Shinde delivered the verdict.