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 HC 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.
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.
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.