Mumbai, Sep 17 (IANS) The Bombay High Court Monday upheld the death sentence to two people in the 2007 case of rape and murder of a Pune BPO employee, Jyotikumari Chaudhari.
Chaudhari, 22, was raped and killed in November 2007 by her office cab driver Purshottam Borate and his friend Pradip Kokate while they picked her up for a late night shift.
“Considering all the circumstances, we feel that constraint regarding their punishment is not an option. The death penalty has been confirmed after giving it a lot of thought,” said a division bench of Justice V.M. Kanade and Justice P.D. Kode.
The bench had on Sep 13 upheld the conviction by a Pune sessions court of the two accused. The Pune court had held that the rape and killing was “pre-planned” and termed it as “the rarest of rare cases”.
Even as the prosecution sought severe punishment for the two, stating that there was no chance of reformation, defence lawyers sought leniency urging that the accused had no criminal history.
“We are confirming the death sentence awarded to the duo by the (Pune) sessions court. The manner in which the offence was committed and the deep impact it has had on the society have been considered by us. Any woman will now think twice before taking a cab alone,” the bench observed.
The victim, who hailed from Uttar Pradesh, was a science graduate from the University of Pune. She had joined Wipro BPO as an associate in December 2006 and was staying with her sister and brother-in-law in Panchvati area.
After Chaudhari was kidnapped, raped and killed on her way to work, the duo had dumped her body off the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Her body was found at Wadgaon, on the outskirts of Pune a day later.
The men worked for a logistics company which used to supply vehicles to the call centre.
