Mumbai: Driver held guilty of Sakinaka rape-murder after 6-month trial

MUMBAI: Eight months after the brutal rape and murder of a 32-year-old woman inside a tempo in Sakinaka and six months after trial in the case began, a sessions court on Monday convicted a 45-year-old driver of the crime.
Among the several offences, Judge H C Shende also found accused Mohan Chauhan guilty of murder, rape and under Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The court will hear arguments on the point of sentencing on Wednesday. While the maximum sentence is death, minimum is life imprisonment.

Special public prosecutors Raja Thakare and Mahesh Mule examined 37 witnesses during the speedy trial that commenced in November.
It was the prosecution's case that on the intervening night of September 9 and 10, 2021, between 2.54am and 3.10am, near a footpath at Kherani Road in Sakinaka, Chauhan committed the crime by piercing a knife with another object in the victim's private parts. The prosecution said he knew she belonged to a scheduled caste.
Among the witnesses examined were the victim's parents. Thakare and Mule assisted by advocate Siddharth Jagushte cited other witnesses, including the complainant, a man, who had seen the accused and the victim in the tempo. Another crucial witness was a man who last saw both near the crime spot.
During the final arguments on May 11, Thakare submitted the rape committed by the accused was not what was conventionally understood as peno-vaginal sex. The prosecution said Indian Penal Code's Section 375, Clause B, lays down that insertion of any object into the the private parts of a woman falls within the ambit of rape. It was submitted that forceful penetration of the weapon into private parts resulted in death.
"The force used clearly indicates the intention of the accused. The doctors have certified it to be an injury which is fatal," the prosecution submitted.
Seeking conviction, Thakare submitted, "In Maharashtra and particularly in Mumbai, Ganpati festival is the most auspicious and widely celebrated occasion. However, in the early hours of this auspicious day, that is, the intervening night of September 9 and 10, 2021, the entire metropolis was shocked with the news of a terrible incident in which a young woman, was brutally murdered."
The accused was provided a lawyer, Kalpana Waskar, through legal aid. The accused denied the allegations and said there were several discrepancies in the investigations. Waskar submitted the police were under pressure due to the nature of the case.
The prosecution, though, referred to recoveries of the weapons as well as bloodstained clothes. Evidence in the form of CCTV footage, DNA and fingerprints were cited. A "Gait Test" analysing the gait specific to the accused from the CCTV footage was conducted to identify him.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)