Washim Police Arrest Woman Absconding 22 Years After Murdering Boyfriend
The Washim Police on Friday arrested a woman, Panchshila Thorat, in Gujarat after she spent over 22 years evading a 10-year prison sentence for the 2004 murder of her boyfriend, Madhav Sadashiv Gote, in Washim.
Thorat was traced and arrested by the Washim Cyber team and local police, with assistance from the Khambhalia Police Station in Gujarat. Officers located her after finding a photograph of her in a social media post shared by her husband. After fleeing Maharashtra, Thorat had married a Gujarati man and started a family.
According to police records, the case began in 2000 when Thorat and Gote, then 20 years old, ran away from their homes to enter a live-in relationship. Gote later abandoned Thorat after establishing physical relations under the pretext of marriage. In response, Thorat filed a police complaint alleging that Gote had raped her.
Following the complaint, Gote allegedly continued to threaten and harass Thorat. On June 25, 2004, while Gote was sleeping, Thorat stabbed him in the neck and struck him on the head with a stone, killing him.
Following the murder, a case was registered at the Washim Police Station. Thorat was arrested and spent nearly six months in jail before being released on bail.
The Washim Sessions Court subsequently found Thorat guilty and sentenced her to life imprisonment. She appealed the verdict in the High Court, which reduced her punishment to 10 years of imprisonment. Thorat then challenged the decision in the Supreme Court, which upheld the High Court's 10-year sentence.
Police Inspector Sanjay Chaudhary stated that after learning of the Supreme Court's decision, Thorat went absconding to avoid her prison sentence.
Identifying Thorat proved highly challenging for the police because she was only 20 years old at the time of the crime and more than two decades had passed. However, the cyber team successfully tracked her down to her residence in Gujarat, ensuring she will now serve her sentence.
