Terming it as a “rarest of rare case”, a special women’s court in Mumbai on Friday handed out death sentence to 29-year-old vagabond and history-sheeter from Nashik convict Chandrabhan Sudam Sanap alias Chaukya (29) for raping, killing and dumping a severely burnt and decomposed body of 23-year-old software engineer Esther Anuhya from Andhra Pradesh, in January last year.
Pronouncing sentence on Sanap, Additional Sessions Judge Vrushali Joshi, said, “The case falls under the category of the rarest of rare, hence, the accused is awarded death sentence.. For the charge of murder, the convict shall be hanged by his neck till he is dead.” The Judge sentenced Sanap to life imprisonment under charges of rape under the IPC section 376 A (committing rape and inflicting injury causing death). She handed out ten years imprisonment under 376 (2) (m) (commission of persistent sexual assault). Additional Sessions Judge Vrushali Joshi, who presides over a special women’s court, had on Tuesday convicted Sanap under sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Talking to mediapersons outside the court, a sobbing Sanap claimed that he had been falsely implicated in the crime. “I have been wrongly implicated. I have not committed any crime. I never expected to be given death. There is no evidence against me. I have been punished for something I have not done.”
On May 27, 2014, the Mumbai Police’s crime branch had filed a 542-page chargesheet before the special women’s court. The chargesheet comprised statements of 76 witnesses.
On its part, the Prosecution had built a watertight case against the 29-year-old accused. He had been charged on eight counts including murder, rape and destruction of evidence.
Employed with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Anuhya – a native of Machilipattnam in Andhra Pradesh had disappeared from lTT shortly after arriving at the terminus by the Vishakhapattnam-lTT Express from Vijayawada on January 5, 2014. Anuhya had returned to Mumbai from her native town after celebrating Christmas with her family members. However, she never reached YWCA hostel at Andheri in north-west Mumbai.
Anuhya’s severely burnt and decomposed body was recovered 11 days later on January 16 from a marshy land at Bhandup adjoining the Eastern Express Highway in north-east Mumbai.
The investigations by the crime branch sleuths of the Mumbai police revealed that Sanap – pretending to be a taxi driver – approached Anuhya when she landed in lTT from Vijayawada on January 5. Sanap reportedly offered to agreed to drop the victim girl at her Andheri hostel for `300.
However, when she came out of the platform, she was told that he had a motorbike (owned actually by his friend Nandkishore Sahu) and he would drop her at her hostel.
However, later he took her from the Eastern Express Highway to the service road and then, to the bushes in Bhandup, where he allegedly “forced upon her”. When the victim girl resisted heavily, he banged her head on the ground two to three times and then, strangulated her. He took her trolley and haversack away, but forgot to take the cellphone.
later, he narrated the incident to Sahu, who is his close friend and took his bike again, to the spot to look for the cellphone. However, he could not get it and attempted to burn the corpse. After this, he fled to Nashik.
Sanap was arrested after his description matched with a man seen walking along with the victim woman captured on the CCTV footage at the lTT in Mumbai on January 5, 2014. Given to easy life, Sanap was leading the life of a vagabond in Mumbai. Operating from the Railway stations in Mumbai, Sanap would cheat gullible people arriving in the city. During the interrogation, Sanap confessed to the crime.
