The Supreme Court on Tuesday acquitted a man, who has remained on death row since 2015 for raping and killing a 23-year-old techie on January 5, 2014.
The Bench of Justice BR Gavai, Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice KV Viswanathan observed that it was extremely unsafe to sustain the conviction of Chandrabhan Sudam Sanap.
After examining the evidence, the Apex Court said there was a gaping hole in the prosecution story, adding that there was more than what met the eye.
As per the prosecution, the 23-year-old Software Engineer, a native of Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh, was working in TCS at Goregaon, Mumbai.
On January 5, 2014, Sanap allegedly kidnapped, raped and killed the victim. The accused later burnt the body of the victim at a secluded place near the Eastern Expressway.
While awarding the death sentence to Sanap, the trial court observed that the accused acted with extreme brutality and committed the offence in a pre-planned and a diabolical manner.
Sanap challenged his conviction in the Bombay High Court, which upheld his death sentence on December 20, 2018, on the grounds that the case fell in the category of ‘rarest of the rare’.
While noting that there was no remorse on the part of the accused, the High Court observed that such a person would surely remain a menace to the society.
It further said the accused committed the offence for a petty achievement of satisfying his lust.
The post Mumbai techie rape-murder case: Supreme Court acquits death row convict appeared first on India Legal.