Pune MBA students get life for murdering friend

LOVE KILLS: Aditi Sharma and Praveen Khandelwal were convicted on Wednesday.

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Keywords: Praveen Khandelwal , Aditi Sharma

Pune: Two MBA students were sentenced to life in Pune on Thursday for murdering their classmate—a case of a love triangle gone wrong.

Additional Sessions Judge S S Phansalkar Joshi sentenced Aditi Sharma and her boyfriend Praveen Khandelwal for murdering Udit Bharati on April 22 last year by giving him prasad laced with poison.

All three were 25 and students of the IIHM MBA institute in Wakad, Pune.

Udit and Aditi came to Pune from Jammu where they had studied together in an engineering college. They planned to get married after finishing their MBA degree but their relationship changed.

Aditi met Praveen at the MBA institute and fell in love with him. She wanted to end her relationship with Udit, but he would have nothing of it.

"Aditi and Praveen found a job in Gurgaon but Udit continued to pester Aditi. So both Aditi and Praveen connived to eliminate Udit. On April 22 last year, Aditi came to a Pune lodge and called Udit. When Udit arrived, she offered him prasad mixed with arsenic," said additional public prosecutor Neelima Vartak

Udit went back to his apartment after eating the prasad and was later taken to hospital where he died.

The prosecution alleged the two had pleaded guilty of murdering Udit at the MacDonald Hotel near the Chinchwad station.

The police had initially registered a case of accidental death only to discover later the presence of arsenic in his body. Remains of the poison were also found in Aditi’s bag.

When the judge pronounced the life sentence and asked Aditi and Praveen if they wanted to say anything, they said they were “innocent”.

A highlight of the case was examination of 33 prosecution witnesses, who mainly comprised forensic experts testifying on administration and traces of arsenic found in the viscera of the deceased.

(With inputs from PTI and IANS)