India | Special court hands out death penalty to 45-year-old man

Terming the brutal rape and murder of a 32-year-old woman Andheri’s Sakinaka locality in north Mumbai as “rarest of rare” crime considering the brutality of the attack on the victim, a Special Court here on Thursday handed out death sentence to 45-year-old Mohan Chauhan in the sensational case.

Three days after he convicted Chauhan after holding him guilty of charges of rape, murder and offences under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Special Judge HC Shende of Sessions Court at Dindoshi said that the crime fell under the “rarest of category” owing to the severity of injuries inflicted by the convict on the victim after he sexually assaulted the victim.

"I agree with the Prosecution that the injuries were so brutal, it left no hope of life. Even if she had survived how she would have lived, the Judge wondered, as he sentenced Chauhan to death.

Earlier on Monday, the Judge had convicted Chauhan after holding him guilty of offences registered under sections 302 (murder), 376-A (offence of rape and inflicting injury which causes death or causes the woman to be in a persistent vegetative state), 376 (2)(m) (causing grievous bodily harm or maims or disfigures or endangers the life of a woman while committing rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 37 (1)(A) r/w 135 of the Maharashtra Police Act and and section 31(1)(w) and 3(2)(v) of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

While rooting for death penalty to Chauhan, Special Public Prosecutor Mahesh Mule had told the court on Wednesday: “This is a gruesome and diabolical attack on a hapless and lonely woman at odd hours of the night, thereby raising fear for women’s safety in a metropolitan city like Mumbai. The case fits into the category of rarest of rare case, hence capital punishment should be awarded to the convict”.

The Prosecution had sought the death penalty for Chauhan on the ground that the sexual assault was gruesome and cold-blooded and that it involved a brutal attack on her private parts, which was so severe that it caused her death.

On her part, Chauhan’s lawyer KalpanaWaskar had argued that the convict had no criminal antecedents and that his dependents, including his wife, would suffer if he was given the death penalty. She said that Chauhan had cooperated during the proceedings and that the crime could not be categorised as “rarest of rare” as made out by the Prosecution.

Source: dailypioneer.com, Staff, June 3, 2022

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