Another double murder, this time the place is different, the motive too was different!
Sanjay Mehta, an Indian national employed as an engineer, has been charged with the murder of his wife, 38-year-old Jyoti Mehta, and his nine-year-old stepdaugher Ujalla Dinesh.
Mehta allegedly murdered his wife and stepdaughter at home and then placed the two bodies in a vehicle and took two other family members for a drive to Echo Point lookout at Katoomba, a popular tourist spot in the Blue Mountains about an hour’s drive from Sydney. While his two children took a walk, Mehta threw the bodies off the cliff. Sanjay Mehta told police his wife and step daughter had left home, taking their passports, after an argument.
Jyoti had told her younger sister, who lives in the western suburb of North Parramatta, that her relationship with Mehta “was very strained and that he had recently been physically violent towards her”. It is sad that she knew that her life was in danger and yet could not save herself and her daughter. She could have left the home and taken refuge in some friends place also, but destiny had thought otherwise.
Mehta was arrested Sunday night at 10.15 p.m. from the family house after a walker sighted a female’s body at the bottom of Echo Point lookout at about 2 p.m. Sunday and informed the police.
The bodies were in “a state of decomposition when found”. The bodies have yet to be formally identified.
Mehta, 41, had met Jyoti on the Internet in July 2006 and they were married in May 2007 after she moved to Australia.
According to the police, the wife had approached the Jessie Street Domestic Violence Service in January this year after she was verbally abused by her husband, who had also threatened to kill her or have her deported.
Mehta will remain in custody until his next appearance in court July 21.