10 yrs on, HC sets aside death sentence in Vile Parle rape-murder

A division bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande passed the order while hearing the convict’s appeal against his conviction and death sentence

MUMBAI: Nearly a decade after a 24-year-old physiotherapist was raped and murdered in her Vile Parle home, the Bombay High Court on Monday set aside the death sentence awarded to the goldsmith convicted of the crime.

Bombay High Court. Photo by Girish Srivastava/HT 08-01-02

A division bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande passed the order while hearing the convict’s appeal against his conviction and death sentence, along with the sessions court’s reference seeking confirmation of the capital punishment.

The detailed judgment copy was not available on Monday.

The incident took place in the early hours of December 5, 2016, at a chawl on Shradhanand Road in Vile Parle East. Around 3am, a neighbour woke the victim’s father after noticing smoke coming from the room where his daughter was sleeping.

Her father rushed to the room and found it bolted from outside. When he opened it, he found the room filled with smoke and clothes and books on fire. His daughter was lying naked with a pair of jeans tied around her neck, prompting the distraught father to alert the police.

During the investigation, police examined CCTV footage from the area and allegedly identified Debashish Dhara, a goldsmith working at a jewellery-making unit nearby. He was later traced and arrested from his native place in West Bengal.

Police alleged that Dhara had noticed the woman sleeping alone and entered her room. The prosecution case was that he raped and tortured her before strangling her to death and setting the clothes and books in the room on fire.

On October 4, 2019, Dindoshi sessions court convicted Dhara and sentenced him to death. Additional sessions judge AD Deo observed that the convict had displayed exceptional depravity and not only raped the young woman, but also tortured her before throatling her to death. The court had said that the injuries inflicted on the victim “showed a beastly behaviour.”

“The offence of murder was committed for the petty achievement of satisfying lust of the accused. The crime is committed so brutally that it shocks the conscience of society and also judicial conscience,” it had said.

The sessions court had further observed that, “subjecting the victim to inhuman acts of torture before her death had not only shocked the collective conscience, but calls for the withdrawal of protective arms of the community around the convict. This ghastly act of the convict definitely fits this case in the bracket of the rarest of rare cases.”

Dhara challenged the conviction and death sentence before the high court. The bench on Monday set aside the death sentence. The detailed order is awaited.