The Bombay High Court on Thursday confirmed the death penalty awarded by a special women’s court in October 2015 to 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 2014.
Upholding the verdict given by a special women’s court in Mumbai three years ago, a HC Bench comprising Justice Ranjit More and Justice Bharati Dangre observed that the case fell in the “rarest of rare” category and the crime had “shocked the conscience of society.”
The HC Bench noted that now 32-year-old convict had not seen any “remorse” for his ghastly act and said that it did not see possibility of the convict reforming, and “such a person remains a menace to society.”
It may be recalled that on October 30, 2015, a special women’s court in Mumbai had handed out death sentence to then 29-year-old vagabond and history-sheeter from Nashik convicted Chandrabhan Sudam, a vagabond from Nashik, for raping, killing and dumping a severely burnt and decomposed body of 23-year-old software engineer Esther Anuhya from Andhra Pradesh, in January 2014
Pronouncing sentence on Sanap, Additional Sessions Judge Vrushali Joshi had 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 had 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 earlier convicted Sanap under sections 302 (murder), 376 (rape) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
On May 27, 2014, the Mumbai crime branch police had filed a 542-page charge- sheet before the special women’s court. The charge-sheet comprised statements of 76 witnesses.
On its part, the Prosecution had built a water tight case against the 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 then returned to Mumbai from her native town after celebrating Christmas with her family members. However, she never reached the 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 Rs 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 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, be 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.
An alcoholic and a womaniser, Sanap –who is married thrice — was seen wearing the same clothes — white T-shirt and blue jeans he was last seen in the CCTV footage at the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) in Mumbai while exiting with Anuhya on January 5, 2014, when the investigators accosted him.
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. He was also reportedly into lifting mobile and bags, particularly from the railway premises. He was wanted for offences in Itarsi, Nashik Road and Manmad in north Maharashtra. He was also notified as a proclaimed offender in a case by Gamdevi police station in Mumbai.
During the interrogation, Sanap confessed to the crime.