Meenakshi Thapar or Meenakshi Thapa (4 October 1984 – 19 April 2012) was an Indian actress who worked in

Hindi-language films Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...

. Thapar was born in

Dehradun Dehradun () is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, with the Uttarakhand Legislative As ...

. She made her acting debut in the 2011 horror film ''

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''.

Kidnapping and Murder

In April 2012, during the filming of ''

Heroine A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ''actor''), ''hero' ...

'', Thapa was kidnapped by another actor who had a minor role in the film, Amit Jaiswal, and his girlfriend, Preeti Surin, who had overheard her talking of her family's wealth. She was held for a ransom of 1.5 million (approximately ). They told her mother that, if the ransom was not paid, she would be forced into

pornographic films Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, sex films, and 18+ films are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse and satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include eroticall ...

. Her mother paid 60,000 rupees. Meenakshi was later strangled and decapitated in a hotel in

Gorakhpur Gorakhpur is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, along the banks of the Rapti river in the Purvanchal region. It is situated 272 kilometers east of the state capital Lucknow. It is the administrative headquarters of Gorakhpur dist ...

. Her torso was left in a water tank and her head thrown out of a bus on the way to

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

. The perpetrators were caught with the

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from her mobile phone and confessed to the crime.

Aftermath

On 9 May 2018, A sessions court in South Mumbai on Wednesday convicted two junior artistes of the 2012 abduction and murder of Meenakshi Thapar. Additional Sessions Judge SG Shette found Amit Jaiswal, 36, and his girlfriend Preeti Surin, 26, guilty under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 364-A (kidnapping for ransom). Mumbai Sessions Court on Friday sentenced them to life imprisonment. "Sessions Judge S.G. Shete found them guilty on three main counts of kidnapping, extortion and murder of Thapa and sentenced them to life imprisonment," Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told the media. On Wednesday, Judge Shete found Amit Kumar Jaiswal, 40, and his girlfriend Preeti Surin, 36, guilty of killing the 27-year-old actress in

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

in 2012. During the arguments on the sentence, Nikam had termed the murder as "the rarest of rare cases" and demanded death sentence for both.

Filmography

Films

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thapar, Meenakshi Indian film actresses 2012 deaths Deaths by strangulation Deaths by decapitation Actresses in Hindi cinema People murdered in Uttar Pradesh 21st-century Indian actresses Violence against women in India Indian actresses