Mumbai: Death penalty for Sakinaka rape-cum-murder convict

Mumbai | Seven months after Mumbai was shaken by the brutal rape-cum-murder of a 32-year old woman at Sakinaka, a Mumbai Court on Thursday sentenced the sole accused to ‘death’, here on Thursday.

Dindoshi Sessions Court Additional Sessions Judge H.C. Shende delivered the death verdict to Mohan Chauhan, 45, for the heinous offence that was compared with the Nirbhaya case of Delhi for its sheer brutality.

Earlier on Monday, ASJ Shende had pronounced the ‘guilty’ verdict on Chauhan, hailing from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, and after hearing the arguments between the prosecution and defence on the quantum of sentence, sealed the death penalty.

The rape-cum-murder took place late on September 10, 2021 at in the Khairani Road area of Sakinaka, deserted at that hour, rattling the Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

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Chauhan had pounced on the victim, raped and brutalised inside an open tempo parked near the Rashid Compound off the Chandivali Studios.

After the rape, he shoved an iron rod inside the woman’s private parts, rupturing her intestine and other vitals before decamping from there.

Bleeding profusely from her grievous injuries, the woman lay helpless even as a local watchman alerted the Mumbai Police Control Room alerting them of the crime.

A police team was rushed to the spot within 10 minutes and rushed her to the BMC’s Rajawadi Hospital where she succumbed after a 33-hour battle for life.

Following the uproar, the Mumbai Police swung into action and managed to nab the accused Chauhan from his hideout the next day and booked him under various sections of Indian Penal Code and Scheduled Caste & Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

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The case was probed by Assistant Commissioner of Police Jyotsna Rasam as the head of a SIT, with Police Inspector Dattatray Dhume and Assistant Police Inspector Mahesh Sangle helping her.

During the investigation, the police recorded statements of 77 witnesses, including some relatives and acquaintances of Chauhan, and filed a 345-page chargesheet on September 28, within 18 days of the incident.

The trial saw Special Public Prosecutor Raja Thakare and Advocate Mahesh Mule directing the police charge and Chauhan was defended by lawyer Kalpana Waskar.

As many as 37 witnesses were examined during the main trial and the prosecution also relied on CCTV footage which captured the crime.

ASJ Shende found Chauhan guilty on all charges and terming the act as ‘gruesome’, pronounced the capital punishment today.

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Chauhan, who was present in the courtroom, interrupted the proceedings several times accusing the police of fabricating the case and framing him, for which the judge reprimanded him.

His lawyer Waskar appealed for leniency arguing that the case could not be compared with the Nirbhaya case of Delhi which was a gang-rape, and pointed out that it did not fall in the category of the ‘rarest of rare’ to warrant the death sentence, pleading that he (Chauhan) should be given a change to reform.

It maybe recalled that the incident had triggered a letter-war between Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on the alleged failing ‘law-and-order’ situation in Maharashtra.

Similarly, the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party slammed the MVA government of Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party-Congress for failing to protect women in the state.

IANS

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