Bombay HC acquits man on death row of murder charges, confirms conviction for rape

The bench, however, confirmed his conviction for charges of raping the victim and directed him to serve the remaining sentence for the same.

The incident had taken place on September 5, 2013, when the victim was on her way home. According to the prosecution, she was walking along the railway tracks when the accused Ashok Mukane, who was then 32, accosted the victim and committed rape. He allegedly killed her by hitting her on the head with a blunt object after she resisted him.

The next day, the victim’s mother lodged an FIR, based on which an FIR for murder and rape was registered.

A division bench of Justice Sadhana S Jadhav and Justice Prithviraj K Chavan on Wednesday passed a judgment on the state government’s plea seeking death confirmation, and on an appeal by convict Mukane through advocate Shashikant Chaudhari, against conviction and death sentence awarded by the Sessions court on March 6, 2019.

The Sessions court had found that the case fell within the “rarest of the care category” based on medical evidence on record and observed that the victim was brutally assaulted by the appellant with an aim to commit rape.

However, the High Court observed that the Sessions court judge “erred in holding the appellant guilty of offence of committing murder of the victim.”

“No doubt, in normal circumstances, one may be compelled to think or presume that due to resistance from the victim while attempting to commit rape, the appellant might have smothered her face with a bag or throttled her neck resulting into her death.

“However, in the absence of any marks or bruises or abrasions on the person of the appellant, it is difficult to reach such a conclusion. Moreover, the investigating officer had failed to produce a hard and blunt object alleged to have been used in giving blows over the head of the victim… We must say that the investigating officer had conducted investigation on the aspect of murder of the victim in a most casual and perfunctory manner,” the court added.

The court went on to note that even the medical evidence clearly indicated that “there was forceful rape upon the victim and the appellant had, after noticing the victim lying near the railway track, unmindful of the fact whether she was conscious or alive, committed rape upon her.”

It observed, “The victim was a young able-bodied girl who would not have easily succumbed to the pressure or the advances of the appellant. In the absence of any such marks on the person of the appellant would lead to drawing an inference or can be deduced that the appellant had committed rape when the victim was either unconscious or was no more.” The court directed the District Legal Services Authority, Thane, to pay compensation of Rs 5 lakh within six months to the mother of the victim and disposed of the plea.