Life sentence for couple convicted of killing and beheading model in 2012

MUMBAI: A sessions court on Friday convicted and sentenced a couple to life imprisonment for brutally murdering and beheading 24-year-old city-based model and aspiring actor Meenakshi Thapa at Allahabad in 2012.
The model coordinator duo, Amit Jaiswal (41), who is also an advocate, and his fiancee, Priti Surin (32) from Uttar Pradesh, killed her in a bid to extort Rs 15 lakh from her family as Thapa had told them that she belonged to a rich Nepalese family and acting was her hobby.

The court had convicted the couple on Wednesday after which the defence and prosecution had submitted arguments on the quantum of sentence. Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam had sought the death sentence. However, considering that the case did not fall in the ‘rarest of rare’ category, the court awarded the life sentence.

Thapa was modelling in Dehradun and was also interested in singing. She aspired to become an actor and in 2010, came to Mumbai. She then returned to Dehradun and moved back to Mumbai in December 2011. Her closest friend in the city, yoga instructor Alok Verma, said that at the time of the incident, Thapa was staying in Andheri (W). Her mother had told the court that she worked as a junior artist doing bit roles in movies, including ‘404’, ‘Heroine’, ‘Seher’ and ‘Pakau’.

The prosecution had alleged that on March 13, 2012, the duo took Thapa to Allahabad, convincing her that she had a shoot there. They strangled and beheaded her and then dumped the body in a tank. The prosecution had said that the duo had thrown the head from a bus between Allahabad and Lucknow. The duo was arrested from Mumbai on April 14, 2012.

Nikam said the case was mainly based on circumstantial evidence. Call data records and statements of several witnesses led the police to the accused after a missing person’s complaint was registered at the Amboli police station. A total of 36 witnesses deposed during the trial, including Verma, who said Thapa told him on March 12, 2012, that she was going to Gorakhpur for a shoot with the duo. He said that the next morning, Thapa introduced him to the duo at LTT. Surin’s father also deposed that Thapa had arrived at his house on the night of March 14, 2012, with his daughter and Jaiswal. Both Thapa’s mother Kamala and sister deposed on how a message was received from Thapa’s phone on March 14, 2012, stating that that if she didn’t deposit Rs 15 lakh in Thapa’s account within three days, her daughter’s obscene MMS would be uploaded on the internet.

On March 20, 2012, the family lodged a complaint with the Dehradun police. A complaint was also lodged at Amboli police station.