The Bombay High Court confirmed a sessions court judgement which slapped death sentences on two men accused of raping and killing a 22-year-old BPO worker in Pune in 2007.
Purushottam Borate, the driver of the office cab, in which the victim was returning home, was convicted along with his friend Pradip Kokate. The accused were sentenced in March this year by a sessions court in Pune.
Bombay High Court. Image courtesy: Michael Siegel, WikimediaCommons.
The confirmation comes just days after the High Court had upheld the conviction of the accused. IBN Live quotes Justice V M Kanade as saying, “We are confirming the conviction. The trial court has not erred in convicting the two. But on sentencing we would like to hear more arguments from both the defence and prosecution lawyers regarding mitigating circumstances and so on.”
IBN Live reports that though the prosecution had demanded the duo be treated with no mercy, the defence had sought a less severe punishment by arguing that they had no criminal record.
The victim, a science graduate hailing from Uttar Pradesh, worked as an associate with the Wipro BPO . On November 1, 2007 she took the office cab designated to take her home. The driver, along with his friend, took a detour and stopped in a secluded area where they took turns to rape her. They then strangled her with her dupatta and disfigured her face with a sharp weapon so that she isn’t recognised easily. However, they were arrested soon after the victim’s body was recovered from along the Mumbai-Pune expressway.
