Mumbai court awards death penalty to Sakinaka rape-murder convict

The death sentence came barely nine months after 40-year-old Mohan Kathwaru raped and brutally killed a 32-year-old woman at Sakinaka in September 2021.

MUMBAI: The Dindoshi sessions court on Thursday awarded death penalty to 40-year-old Mohan Kathwaru Chouhan, nine months after he raped and brutally killed a 32-year-old woman at Sakinaka in September 2021.

The September 2021 Sakinaka rape and murder case sparked widespread anger over the brutality of the attack on the hapless woman. (Representational Image)

Special judge HC Shende accepted the prosecution’s claim that the case met the criteria for a rarest of rare case, warranting capital punishment for the convict.

According to the prosecution, the incident, which sparked widespread anger over the brutality of the attack on the hapless woman, took place in a parked tempo on Kherani Road in Sakinaka during the wee hours of September 10, 2021.

A watchman, who saw the woman in the injured state, informed the police, following which the victim was rushed to Rajawadi Hospital at Ghatkopar, where she breathed her last the next day.

The prosecution had mainly relied on the heinousness of the crime while seeking capital punishment for Chouhan. “This is a gruesome, diabolical attack on a hapless, lonely woman at odd hours of night, thereby raising fear for woman’s safety in the metropolitan city like Mumbai,” special public prosecutor Mahesh Mule had said, referring to the brutal manner in which the 40-year-old killed the hapless victim.

Chouhan’s lawyer had opposed the plea for death sentence, arguing that this was not a rarest of rare case, warranting the extreme penalty. “The victim was alive even after the sexual assault and she could have been alive, had she received proper medical treatment after the incident,” his lawyer had argued.

The prosecution examined 37 witnesses to prove the case against Chouhan. Besides, it heavily relied on the CCTV footage of Chouhan assaulting the victim and pulling her towards the parked tempo.