Bombay HC confirms life term for driver in 2006 techie murder – Times of India

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal filed 12 years ago by a tourist car driver, Victor Manthero, who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering an Infosys software engineer while ferrying him to Mumbai in 2006.
Manthero, who was convicted by a trial court on August 16, 2010, had absconded while on parole in October 2011, and “since then is absconding”, said the HC bench of Justices P B Varale and N R Borkar, who found the evidence unblemished and enough to uphold the guilty verdict.
The HC had reserved the matter for judgment on August 24, 2021, and pronounced it on Wednesday.
The prosecution’s case was that Potdar died of cardio respiratory arrest due to lorazepam poisoning. The evidence that clinched the case was the victim Vijay Potdar’s credit card at Manthero’s residence and a bottle of tranquiliser in his car.
Mumbai resident Potdar worked in Pune. He would come home every Friday and head back to Pune on Mondays. On March 14, 2006, which was a Friday, Potdar called up his wife Sapna and said he had left Pune. When he didn’t reach Mumbai, she called him, but his phone was out of network. Worried, she informed her father. The next day, they lodged a missing person’s report at Hinjewadi police station. The same day, Sapna received alerts of her husband’s credit card being used at a Navi Mumbai mall for cellphone recharge. Pune police traced the cellphone to Manthero’s Mumbai residence and questioned his brother.
Manthero would often pick up passengers on the highway between Mumbai and Pune. Additional public prosecutor Geeta Mulekar said he used to give sedatives to passengers, rob their valuables and dump them on the roadside. She said on March 14, 2006, he picked up Potdar from Wakad in Pune and offered him a spiked aerated drink. When police questioned Manthero, Mulekar said he told them that he had dropped Potdar near Pen. Police found his body by the roadside near Jitegaon village.
Manthero was arrested from Rajasthan. Police said he also bought a gold ingot and a gold pendant with the victim’s credit card.
Advocate Shantanu Phanse, appointed by the HC to represent Manthero, argued that there was no CCTV footage to prove that Potdar had travelled in Manthero’s car or that he had gone to the Navi Mumbai mall. The HC, however, said lack of such footage makes no dent in the evidence against Manthero and dismissed his appeal filed in 2010.