Mumbai: A Sessions Court on Friday handed life time imprisonment to Amit Jaiswal and Preeti Surin, the two junior artists for abducting and killing aspiring actress Meenakshi Thapa. The two were convicted earlier this week under the charges of criminal conspiracy, kidnapping for ransom, tampering with the evidence and murder. The court had also convicted the duo under some provisions of the Information and Technology (IT) Act.
According to public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, both the convicts were sentenced to life time imprisonment on three main counts. “Firstly for kidnapping followed by extorting money from Thapa family and then for brutally killing the actress. The court has handed over life time to the duo on all the three counts,” Nikam said.
It may be noted that citing the modus operandi opted by Jaiswal and Surin and the brutal manner in which they killed Thapa by beheading her, Nikam had sought capital punishment for the duo. Nikam had contended that the case can be categorised as a ‘rarest of rare’ incident, however, the Judge SG Shete awarded them lifetime imprisonment.
Thapa, who worked in some Bollywood films, had met Jaiswal and Surin on the sets of ‘Heroine’ film, in which she had shared the screen with actress Kareena Kapoor Khan. Since then, Thapa developed a good bond with the duo. According to the case of the prosecution, Thapa had told both the accused that she hails from an affluent family and that her family was one of the wealthiest ones in Nepal. She had told them that despite too much of wealth, she acts in films as it was her hobby.
The prosecution claimed that it was only because of Thapa’s claims, Jaiswal and Surin, kidnapped her and took her to Gorakhpur, Allahabad, their hometown. From there, they called Thapa’s parents and sought ransom of Rs 15 lakh. However, her parents could only manage to arrange Rs. 60,000.
This fact, according to the prosecution, did not go down well with the accused and they decided to kill her. Accordingly, Thapa was beheaded and her severed body was disposed in a water tank in Allahabad, while her head was thrown out of a moving bus. Since then, the prosecution has failed to recover Thapa’s severed head.