Handwriting on photograph of wife given to two hitmen nailed Parel grocer

MUMBAI: The handwriting on a photograph identifying the victim for the contract killers helped the prosecution nail the Parel grocery shop owner, who was recently sentenced to life for the brutal murder of his wife in 2009.
The handwriting matched the sample collected from the accused. “It is clear that the prosecution has established that accused (Jitin Dedhia) had given a photograph of his wife and had written her name as ‘Bina Jitin Dedhia’ on the back...the handwriting is now proved to be that of the accused,” the sessions court said in the detailed judgment copy.
The judge also accepted that the photograph was recovered by the cops from one of the attacker’s pocket.
Last week, the sessions court sentenced Jitendra (48) to life imprisonment for the murder of his 39-year-old wife when she was out on a morning walk on October 24, 2009. Jitendra ordered the hit because she refused to divorce him; he allegedly has an affair with his wife’s sister-in-law and wanted to marry her. Also sentenced to life were the two attackers, Nazim Khan and Hasruddin Malik.
Another crucial evidence that helped tag the husband as the “main perpetrator” were the call data records that showed that Jitendra had called Malik from his mobile phone at 5.09am, a few minutes before the murder.
The court added that the motive was established after the evidence of a witness, the manager of a lodge in Thane, identified Jitendra as the man who had visited the lodge along with the paramour on October 19, 2009. Also relied upon was the hotel entry diary which had his signature. The signature too tallied with Jitendra’s signature. The sessions court said this established that he had “some relations” with the woman.
Other evidence pointing to Jitendra’s guilt were the DNA reports. Calling it “very strong and important evidence”, the court said, “The DNA profile of the blood found on Bina’s kurta clearly matched with that of the blood found on Khan’s shirt.” The court observed that it was clear that Khan had assaulted Bina.
Jitendra had made the crime look like a chain-snatching incident gone wrong. However, a month after the incident, the Mumbai crime branch cracked the case and found that Jitendra had promised the co-accused Rs 1 lakh for carrying out the attack.