A special court on Friday has sentenced Chandrabhan Sanap, who was convicted for rape and murder of 23-year-old Andhra techie Esther Anuhya, in January past year, to death.
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Special Judge Vrushali Joshi while awarding the sentence said it was a rarest of rare case.
The decomposed body of Esther Anuhya, 23, an employee of Tata Consultancy Services or TCS, was found in Kanjurmarg, a Mumbai suburb, on January 16, 2014. He further submitted that in our situation besides the homicide cost, the Indian Penal Code area, 376 (A) (while choosing rape, imposing an injury that causes the girl’s death) under which Sanap was furthermore found responsible, also drawn the utmost sentence of death.
Anuhya’s father Jonathan Prasad and brother Thomas Noble have welcomed the verdict. While returning to Mumbai, she had alighted at Lokmanya Tilak Terminus on January 5 after which she went missing.
The only clue the police had was footage from a CCTV at the railway station, which showed a man with a moustache carrying Esther’s bag and walking in front of her. A porter at the station identified Sanap and helped the police catch him.
When Esther emerged from LTT, she realised that Sanap did not have a taxi or an auto, but a bike.
Later, he took a few petrol from his motorbike and attempted to burn her in the thick bushes beside the Eastern Express Highway near Kanjurmarg. Kumar also spoke to Esther’s father and everyone at her home and stated that the family is happy with the court’s decision.
Convicting Sanap on Tuesday, the court had termed the incident “a case of cold-blooded pre-planned murder” where the motive was “to satisfy unbridled lust”. In the struggle that ensued, he knocked her head several times on the stones nearby, and then strangled her with a dupatta.
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Mumbai Police spokesperson Dhananjay Kulkarni said on Friday that the prosecution successfully secured the conviction under all sections of the law under which the accused was tried.
