Cursetji murder verdict

After examining 41 witnesses in the sensational murder case of 73-year-old Adi Cursetji on May 22, 2003, Justice Shalini Gaikwad of the Sessions Court delivered her verdict on February 24, 2006, sentencing Geeta Soni to life in jail along with her husband Irshad Mulla, and mother Sharda. The verdict made front page news in The Times of India the next day for within an hour of the judgment Soni jumped to her death from the toilet on the third floor of the Court building.

The prosecution maintained that Cursetji was murdered at his house at Kakad Estate in Worli soon after he expressed a desire to change his will, thus depriving foster daughter Soni of crores in cash and property, according to the Times of February 25. Their common interest in stray dogs and old watches reportedly earned the chief accused Cursetji’s affections and trust. But when he learnt of her marriage to his driver Mulla, the relations between the two soured. A day after he got in touch with his bankers asking them to stop Soni from operating his bank lockers Cursetji was suffocated to death by a pillow before he could change his will, claimed the public prosecutors. Two persons — Rakesh Walmiki and Ajay Walmiki — hired to abduct and murder him were also served a life sentence.

Among the others implicated in the case were Drs Baburam Hegde and Umasevak Pal who were accused of giving a false death certificate listing the cause of death as natural, based on which Cursetji’s last rites were performed at the Towers of Silence by Ervad Behram Dordi and his body taken into the dakhma. But following a police complaint of murder by Cursetji’s friend Navroz Jilla the body had to be brought out of the dakhma for post mortem examination where a medical expert confirmed that death was due to suffocation and not natural. While Hegde was sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment for giving false evidence to shield an offender, Pal and Dordi were acquitted for lack of evidence. As mentioned on the WAPIZ Page in the Afternoon Despatch and Courier of March 2, 2006, Rati Amaria and Yasmin Katpitia "spent hundreds of hours fighting (Dordi’s) case, free of charge with dedication and commitment resulting in Behram’s acquittal on all counts.” Zoroastrian Studies founder Khojeste Mistree and Indawalla Agiary trustees Jimmy Shroff, Farokh Antia and Dr Nelie Noble too stood by Dordi.

To divert attention from herself Soni had alleged that she paid Dordi five lakh rupees to dispose of Cursetji’s body as soon as possible. Similarly Soni had told the Court just before her death that Jilla’s role in the matter was also suspect as he is now the main beneficiary of Cursetji’s property. But the Court informed her that she had been sentenced and this was not the stage to level such allegations. A report in the Mid-Day however clarified, "No one knows who will inherit Cursetji’s Rs 35 crore wealth. Legally though the property should end up with Jilla, Cursetji’s closest friend. But everyone from the prosecution to defence lawyers to Jilla himself are not sure about it… Cursetji’s wife Mehru became the legal heir to the property after his death.” Since Jilla took care of Mehru and kept her company till her death on October 19, 2003, she made him the beneficiary of her will. So whether Jilla or the Bombay Parsi Punchayet inherits the property is not known.