Death sentence to three convicts in Nayana Pujari gangrape-cum-murder case

Close on the heels of the Supreme Court confirming the death sentence for four convicts in Delhi’s Nirbhaya case, a special court in Pune on Tuesday awarded capital punishment to three men who had kidnapped, looted, gangraped and murdered Nayana Pujari, a software professional.

Additional sessions judge L L Yenkar, who presides over a fast-track court Shivajinagar in Pune, sentenced to death Yogesh Raut, Mahesh Thakur and Vishwas Kadam, who on Monday were found guilty under sections 376 (rape) , 302 (murder), 120B(criminal conspiracy) 361 (kidnapping) along with several other counts of Indian Penal Code.

The fourth accused, Rajesh Chaudhary, had turned an approver and pardoned.

“It was the most brutal crime. The victim was abducted, gangraped and murdered. It falls in the category of the rarest of the rare case and hence capital punishment be given,” special public prosecutor Harshad Nimbalkar said.

The defence lawyers – B A Alur, Ranjit Dhomse-Patil and Ankush Jadhav – seeking a lower sentence, argued that the accused-turned-approver was also guilty in the matter and should be given the same punishment. “We would move the higher court,” they said.

The case dates back to 7 October, 2009, when Nayana (28) - a software engineer with IT firm in Kharadi was reported missing and two days later on 9 October, 2009, her body was found in the Zarewadi forest area in Khed tehsil of Pune district.

The accused was kidnapped and  raped inside the car. They even robbed her of Rs 61000 using her ATM card.  She was in the car for six hours and she was murdered and her body dumped. The suspects even smashed her face using a huge boulder  to destroy the evidence.

The case was delayed for multiple reasons. One of the accused, Raut escaped while being escorted to the Sassoon Hospital here on 17, September, 2011, for treatment. He was later re-arrested from Shirdi after 20 months.  As many as 37 witnesses were examined during the trial.