Bombay High Court rejects plea of ex-Navy man convicted of girlfriend’s murder

Source – dnaindia.com

The Bombay High Court on Thursday rejected the appeal filed by former Navy officer Manish Thakhur and confirmed the life imprisonment imposed on him for murdering his girlfriend, Koushambi Layek, in an Andheri hotel room in 2007.

A division bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sarang Kotwal dismissed the appeal challenging the conviction handed down to him by a sessions court in 2014. Advocate Jayesh Yagnik, appearing for the prosecution, said, “The court accepted the circumstantial and forensic evidence placed on record during the trial court which proves a chain of circumstances to prove the guilt of the accused.”

On March 4, 2014, the sessions court had convicted 28-year-old Thakur for shooting dead Layek, then a Tata Consultancy Services staffer.

In his appeal filed through advocate Rahul Arote, Thakur claimed that the prosecution did not concretely establish that he was present in the hotel room where the woman’s body was found. Thakur’s petition said that he was in Goa undergoing training at the time.

Layek, 24, was found murdered in Andheri-based Sun-N-Sheel Hotel on May 14, 2007. According to the prosecution, the duo had checked in the previous day and Thakur killed Layek after she sought to end their relationship.

Thakur, who was attached to the Navy’s aeronautical wing, first met Layek on a train to Thiruvananthapuram, where they were to attend separate training programmes in 2005. The friendship grew into a relationship through exchanges on Orkut, a social networking site popular at the time.

However, after some time, Layek learnt that Thakur was married and sought to end the relationship.