Pune techie murder: Death penalty for 3

Nearly eight years after a software engineer returning home from work in Pune was abducted and raped by four people, and then murdered, a special court on Monday convicted three of them. The fourth accused, who had turned approver, was acquitted.

Special Judge L L Yenkar awarded death sentence to the trio — Yogesh Raut, Mahesh Thakur and Vishwas Kadam, a day after convicting them in the sensational gangrape-cum-murder case.

While convicting the three on Monday, the court let off the fourth accused who had turned approver in the case.

Special Public Prosecutor Harshad Nimbalkar had forcefully argued for the death penalty against the convicts, terming it as “the rarest of rare cases” considering the brutality of the crime against the victim.

The victim, who worked at an IT firm in Kharadi was kidnapped on October 7, 2009 from Kharadi bypass, while waiting for a transport to return home.

The accused had taken the girl’s ATM card and forced her to reveal the PIN. They withdrew cash from different ATMs before and after killing her. They had robbed her jewellery and her valuables after the murder.

Her body was recovered two days later from Zarewadi forest area in Khed tehsil of Pune district.

Yogesh, Mahesh and Vishwas, who were given death penalty on Tuesday, had been convicted on seven counts of including kidnapping, gang-rape, murder, robbery, misappropriation of property after hatching a criminal conspiracy.

The girl’s sister told Free Press Journal, “We are happy that she got justice after eight years.”

Her husband said, “We are happy that justice has finally been delivered.”