Youth gets life imprisonment for killing girlfriend's parents in Gujarat

Vadodara, July 23: A 23-year-old youth has been sentenced for life by a local court for killing the parents of his girlfriend here in 2014.

According to the prosecution, the victims - Shrihari Vinod (63) and his wife Sneha (60) - were allegedly killed by their adopted daughter, who was around 16 years old at the time of the incident, and her boyfriend Sapan Purani (then aged 21) at their bungalow in Tirupati society in Manjalpur area of the city on August 3, 2014.

The girl and her boyfriend allegedly offered sedative-laced food to her parents and later they both smothered them to death with a pillow.

The incident came to light a couple of days later, after the society's residents complained to police about foul smell coming from the locked house.

Later, the police broke open the house and the two bodies were found. The girl was adopted by the childless couple when she was about one-year-old.

The teenage girl, who was a Class X student at a private school in the city, had been staying with her boyfriend after the couple's murder.

Her boyfriend used to visit the murdered couple's house to spray perfume on the bodies so that the foul smell may not spread.

Suspecting involvement of the adopted girl in the murder, police questioned her and her boyfriend. Later, they both confessed to have killed the elderly couple. In her confession, the girl said that she and her boyfriend killed her parents because they used to beat her and forced her to study against her wishes, and did not allow her to marry her boyfriend.

After hearing arguments of both the sides, Additional Sessions Judge B D Pithva yesterday awarded life imprisonment to Purani and also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on him. The girl's case is pending in a juvenile court.

PTI