The prosecution on Friday sought death penalty for former police inspector Abhay Kurundkar, convicted for the murder of assistant inspector Ashwini Bidre-Gore in 2016. The additional sessions court in Panvel will pronounce the sentence on April 21.
Nine years to the day Ashwini went missing, her daughter, father, brother and estranged husband came before court seeking the strictest punishment for 60-year-old Kurundkar. Special public prosecutor Pradip Gharat also sought action against “erring” police officers of the Navi Mumbai police, stating that their lapses in the case adversely impacted the probe.
On April 11, 2016, Ashwini, who at the time was posted in Navi Mumbai, went missing. She was estranged from her husband, Raju Gore, and was in a relationship with Kurundkar, who was also married. Kurundkar was then posted in Thane.
On April 5 last week, additional sessions judge K G Paldewar convicted Kurundkar on charges including murder and two of his associates on charges of destruction of evidence. The prosecution claims Ashwini’s body was cut into three pieces and the torso was dumped in a creek with weights to prevent it from floating up.
“When a police officer commits a murder of a lower rank officer, that too a lady, and the body is cut into pieces and disposed to destroy evidence, it shakes the collective conscience of the society. The accused was a senior police officer who was supposed to maintain law and order and prevent crime. He himself committed this crime which increases the seriousness of the offence manifold,” SPP Gharat submitted, stating that the case falls in the category of ‘rarest of rare’ as the body was disposed in a brutal and cruel manner. Ashwini’s remains were never found.
Her 16-year-old daughter, Siddhi, told the court that she had always looked up to the police services and she desired to join it as her mother was a good officer. “My mother was a police officer and I always respected the civil services and desired to join them. This case made me understand that some people have no humanity. It is not fair to take someone’s life. They murdered someone, butchered her. How much pain she must have gone through? They should suffer as much as they made my mother suffer,” Siddhi told the court. She said that she just completed her Class X board exams and missed her mother when she saw other parents come to drop their children to school. She also said that while her father, Gore, pursued the case, she worried that harm may be caused to him.
Gore too stepped into the witness box and told the court that pursuing justice in the case was challenging as there was unwillingness initially to even register an FIR. He told the court that when he went to a senior police officer of the Navi Mumbai police seeking action, the officer had made objectionable remarks.
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“Now that justice is done, we do not want any compensation from the accused. He cannot compensate what we lost. My daughter’s whole childhood was impacted. Her mother’s salary should have been given towards her education by the police department,” Gore said.
Ashwini’s brother, Anand, too said that pursuing justice in the case felt like ‘climbing a mountain’.
“What happened to my elder sister is something everyone in society should think of. See what her own fellow officer did to her. Everyone knows what was between them, their differences could have been resolved. What was the need to kill her? Police are supposed to be saviours, samaritan. Common man will first run to them when any incident happens. He has not only killed my sister but killed the trust of the common man,” he told the court.
The prosecution had claimed that Ashwini’s insistence on getting married to Kurundkar led him to murder her at his residence in Thane in 2016.
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While Kurundkar’s driver Kundan Bhandari and his friend Mahesh Falnikar, who have been in jail since 2018, were convicted of destruction of evidence, they have already spent more than the maximum punishment in jail and will be let off after the pronouncement. The court acquitted one accused, also booked for helping Kurundkar.
Kurundkar’s lawyer Vishal Bhanushali argued before court that death penalty cannot be given to him as the entire case is based on circumstantial evidence. “There is significant room for residual doubt about his involvement in the case. There is also the chance of reform. He has had a blemish-free, clear record in his entire career, and was even awarded the President’s medal,” Bhanushali submitted. Kurundkar was given the gallantry award in 2017.
Gharat said an inquiry should also be initiated against the committee which recommended Kurundkar’s name for the award as at that time he was under the scanner for his role in Ashwini’s disappearance.
Gharat submitted a list of officers including a senior IPS officer to the court stating that their acts of omission and commission furthered and facilitated the burking or covering up of the incident and hence action under Section 109 (punishment for abetment) of the Indian Penal Code should be initiated against them.