Two sisters get life imprisonment for killing brother's widow

A court here today sentenced two sisters to life imprisonment for murdering the widow of their brother in 2007 in a property case.
Additional Sessions Judge Rahul Trivedi sentenced the sisters-- Falguni Shah and Veena Shah -- to life imprisonment for murdering Ami Shah, the widow of their brother Praful Shah.
According to the prosecution, Ami Shah had demanded part of her husband's property after he died in a road accident.
However, since the sisters did not want to pay Rs 13 lakh to her as ordered by Lok Adalat, they planned to eliminate her. She was kidnapped by the duo on a vehicle driven by one Sanjay, an accused, who later turned approver and was acquitted in the case.

Providing case details, prosecutor Kirit Panwala, said, "Ami was waiting for an autorickshaw to catch a train for Vadodara on October 12, 2007. But on the pretext of dropping her at the railway station, the duo took the victim in the car they had hired from Surat's Haripura locality."
She was taken to Ankleshwar and strangled to death near Tapi Lodge when the driver Sanjay was away. Later, they co-opted the driver by threatening him and bought petrol from a petrol pump near Abrama village on Surat outskirts and set Ami's body on fire, he said.
Earlier, Sanjay had applied to turn approver in the case, which had been challenged by the victims' family members in the high court. However, the high court had dismissed their plea.

During the trial, the court allowed Sanjay to become an approver. Based on his statements and those of other witnesses and evidence, the court sentenced the sisters to life imprisonment.