Pune court gives woman double life term for killing her two young children in Mulshi

A Pune sessions court has convicted a mother of murdering her two young children and sentenced her to double life imprisonment. Additional Sessions Judge S. B. Bhansali delivered the verdict.

The convict is Poona alias Poonam Sanjay Solanki, 28, originally from Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh. Along with the life terms, the court imposed a fine of Rs 10,000. It also sentenced her to three years' rigorous imprisonment for destroying evidence.

The incident took place on January 5, 2022, in the Shirwali area of Mulshi taluka. Poonam strangled her three-and-a-half-year-old daughter and her two-year-old son. Her husband, Sanjay Solanki, had filed a complaint at Paud police station.

The Solanki family is originally from Madhya Pradesh. They had come to Pune to earn a living and lived in a small house meant for construction workers in the Shirwali area. The police investigation found that Poonam often beat the children. When she was asked not to hit them, she would grow irritable.

On January 5, Poonam left the house with both children. When they and his wife had not returned after a long time, Sanjay began searching for them. Meanwhile, Poonam took the children into a forest and killed them by strangling them with a rope. She then left the children there and went to her brother, who lives in Lonavala.

The next day, Poonam's brother phoned Sanjay and told him that Poonam had arrived in Lonavala without the children. When asked about the children, Poonam said she had killed both and thrown them in the grass. This is how the whole matter came to light.

Public Prosecutors Vijay Phargade and Anilkumar Verma appeared for the prosecution. On the basis of the available evidence and testimony, the court held Poonam guilty of murdering the children. She was sentenced to double life imprisonment, a fine of Rs 10,000 and three years' rigorous imprisonment for destroying evidence.