Mumbai: Man Gets Death Penalty For Brutal Rape, Murder Of Woman In Sakinaka Last Year

The convict, identified as Mohan Kathwaru Chauhan, had raped and murdered the woman by inserting a sharp weapon into her private part.

A session court in Mumbai awarded death penalty to a 45-year-old man in connection with the gruesome rape and murder of a 32-year-old woman in Mumbai's Sakinaka area in September last year. According to reports, the death sentence was announced by Additional Sessions Judge HC Shende of the Dindoshi Sessions Court.

The convict, identified as Mohan Kathwaru Chauhan, had raped and murdered the woman by inserting a sharp weapon into her private part. The woman had later passed away at the hospital.

The crime had sent shockwaves across the nation and several said that it evoked memories of the 2012 Delhi gangrape case due to the brutality involved.

Additional sessions judge (Dindoshi) HC Shende had convicted accused under various sections of IPC, including 302 (murder), 376 (rape) as well as provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on May 30.

The verdict was announced after prosecution had on Wednesday demanded capital punishment for Chouhan who had violated the victim with an iron rod during the assault. The court had convicted Chauhan on all charges on Monday and announced the quantum of punishment today.

While pronouncing the verdict, the judge noted that the act was 'gruesome'. "The present case falls under the category of rarest of the rare cases," the judge said. 

During the final hearing, the prosecution informed court that accused had injured the woman fatally and left no chance of her survival as her intestines were so badly damaged that her digestive system was destroyed.

"This is an offence against a woman and that too, a woman belonging to a scheduled caste that makes it more serious," advocate Mahesh Mule, appearing for the prosecution, had argued during the hearing on the quantum of punishment, news agency PTI reported.

"This is a gruesome, diabolical attack on a hapless, lonely woman at odd hours of the night, thereby raising fear for women's safety in a metropolitan city like Mumbai," he said.

The incident took place on September 10, 2021 and the victim was taken to a civic-run Rajawadi Hospital where she succumbed to injuries a day later. Mumbai Police indentified the acussed and arrested him within a few hours of the crime. A charge sheet was filed in the case within 18 days.

(With inputs from PTI.)