Mumbai man sentenced to death for rape, murder

MUMBAI: Dindoshi sessions court here on Thursday awarded death penalty to a 45-year-old man for the brutal rape and murder of a 32-year-old woman in Mumbai’s Sakinaka area in September last year, observing that showing mercy in such cases will be a “travesty of justice”. The court also noted that the “case, without any doubts, falls into the category of the rarest of rare”.

“(Going by) The facts, circumstances involved in the crime, the nature of injuries caused to the victim, the overall conduct of the accused, I am of considered view that the accused deserves optimum punishment… This case, without any doubts, falls into the category of the ‘rarest of rare’,” special judge H C Shend said while announcing the death penalty to the accused Mohan Kathwaru Chouhan.

“This incident is horrible, diabolic, inhuman, brutal… brought dreadful shivers up to the spine on thinking about it… Only a death sentence would send out the right message in society,” the judge added, referring to the gruesome nature of the injury caused to the victim. The woman was raped by the accused inside a parked tempo on September 10, 2021, in Kherani Road in Sakinaka, an industrial area in the western suburb of Andheri.

Police said Chouhan, a native of Uttar Pradesh who engaged in odd jobs for earning a livelihood in Mumbai, was known to the victim. The duo had got into a fight following which he pulled her inside the tempo and raped her. He also inserted a rusted knife into her private part, they said.

The woman was later found by a watchman who alerted police. She was rushed to civic-run Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar where she died during treatment a day later. Medical examination revealed the accused had injured the woman fatally and left no chance of her survival as her intestines were badly damaged and digestive system was destroyed.

“To show leniency or mercy in the case of such heinous crime and to an accused who has shown no repentance or remorse after exhibiting an extremely depraved mentality would be a travesty of justice,” the court said.

The prosecution, which examined 37 witnesses, on Wednesday demanded capital punishment for Chouhan. “This is a gruesome, diabolical attack on a hapless, lonely woman at odd hours of night, thereby raising fear for women’s safety in the metropolitan city like Mumbai,” said special public prosecutor Mahesh Mule.

Mule also pointed out that the attack was so forceful that the entire intestine of the victim had come out. The part of the body which was chosen for attack reflected the perverse sexual intent of the accused, he said.

During the trial, the prosecution relied heavily on CCTV footage of the crime spot, which showed the accused assaulting the victim on the pavement before pulling her towards the vehicle.

Opposing the death penalty, Chouhan’s counsel advocate Kalpana Waskar said: “The victim was alive even after the sexual assault and she could have been alive, had she received proper medical treatment after the incident.”