A special court in Pune on Tuesday handed out capital punishment to three prime accused in the 2009 gang-rape and murder of IT software engineer Nayana Phatak-Pujari, while it granted pardon to the fourth accused who had turned approver in the case.
In a significant verdict that came on the heels of the Supreme Court confirming capital punishment awarded to four convicts in the Nirbhaya case, Additional sessions judge ll Yenkar sentenced to death Yogesh Ashok Raut (24), Mahesh Balasaheb Thakur (24) and Vishwa Hindurao Kadam (26).
The court had on Monday held Raut, Thakur and Kadam found guilty under sections 376 (rape), 302 (murder), 120-B(criminal conspiracy) 361 (kidnapping) of IPC.
While Raut and Thakur hail from Khed tehsil of Pune district, Kadam hails from the neighbouring Satara district in western Maharashtra.
During the course of the arguments on quantum of sentence, Raut urged the court that the fourth accused be also convicted and handed out the same punishment as meted out to the three convicts.
“If you are punishing three of us, then you should also hand out the same quantum of sentence to the fourth accused Rajesh Chaudhary. I have nothing to do with crime. The fourth accused Chaudhary, who turned approver, had taken my taken my car. .. I also request the court to consider that there is no one to take care of my wife and children at home," Raut told the court.
Maintaining that 27 witnesses had provided evidence in the case, Special public prosecutor Harshad Nimbalkar told the court: “We have conclusively established the various charges against all the accused and the court has accepted our arguments.. Considering the brutal manner in which the victim was gang-raped and killed falls under the category of rarest of the rare case, we have demanded death sentence for the convicts".
Defence lawyers B A Alur, Ranjit Dhomse-Patil and Ankush Jadhav sought reduced quantum of sentence to the three convicts. They argued that the accused-turned-approver was also guilty in the matter and be given the same punishment.
However, accepting the Prosecution’s contention that the crime committed by the three convicts fell in the “rarest of rare” of the category, Judge Yelankar sentenced Raut, Thakur and Kadam to death.
The court pardoned the fourth accused-turned-approver Rajesh Chaudhary.
Talking to media persons after the court awarded capital punishment to three convicts, the defence lawyers that they would challenge the trial court’s verdict in the Bombay High Court.
It may be recalled that on October 7, 2009, Nayana (28), a software engineer with IT firm in Kharadi went missing. Two days later --on October 9, 2009, her body was found in the Zarewadi forest area in Khed tehsil of Pune district.
While Raut used to work as a driver with Synechron – the same IT firm where Phatak-Pujari worked, Chaudhari was working as a security guard there, and later chose to turn an approver in the case.
On the night of October 7, 2009, Raut offered lift to Nayana after the latter leaving for home completing her duty at Synechron IT company in Kharadi , a suburb of Pune.
The investigations revealed that the then three accused and now convicts had kidnapped Nayana and raped inside the car. They even robbed her of Rs 61,000 using her ATM card. Nayana was in the car for six hours, before she was murdered. The accused smashed her face using a huge boulder to destroy the evidence and dumped her body in the forests of Zarewadi from where it was recovered after two days.
Raut, who was arrested within months after the incident, escaped while being escorted to the Sassoon Hospital here on September 17, 2011, for treatment. He was later re-arrested from the temple town of Shirdi in May 2013.
While the Persecution examined as many as 37 witnesses were examined during the trial, the defence the defence another 13 witnesses.
The trial that went on for more than seven years saw four different judges hearing the matter.
During the course of the trial, accused-turned-approver Chaudhari told the court that he had been threatened by Raut, Thakur and Kadam with direct consequences if he revealed their plan to eliminate the victim woman. later, an “extremely remorseful” Chaudhari mustered courage and agreed to turn an approver in the case.