Mohan Chauhan, convicted for the brutal rape and murder of a 32-year-old woman in Sakinaka in September last year, has been sentenced to death by Additional Sessions Judge HC Shende of the Dindoshi Sessions Court.
The convict, who raped and murdered a woman by inserting a sharp weapon into her private part, was given the ultimate penalty by the court.
The judge, while pronouncing the verdict, noted that the act was "gruesome".
Earlier, the court had convicted him of all charges on Monday.
Chauhan was in the witness box on Wednesday for the court to hear him during the proceedings for deciding the quantum of sentence.
Several times during the prosecution’s arguments, he interrupted the proceedings, making allegations that the police had fabricated the case and mocking the prosecutor.
Judge HC Shende reprimanded him for his behaviour and asked him to maintain decorum in court.
Seeking capital punishment for Chauhan, prosecutor Mahesh Mule on Wednesday argued that as per a catena of judgments, the punishment should be adequate for the offence. India has not abolished the death penalty even when 108 nations have as the crimes and their brutality has grown, he argued. The photographs produced before the court show the gravity and perversity of the crime, he added.
Chauhan’s advocate Kalpana Waskar sought leniency for him and argued that the case cannot be compared to the Nirbhaya gangrape case as it is not a case of gangrape and denied that it falls in the category of ‘rarest of rare’ to warrant the death penalty. A harsh punishment will not give a chance to reform, she said, seeking that he be given a chance.
The victim had succumbed to grievous injuries a day after the fatal assault in which a sharp weapon was inserted in her private part.
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