HC upholds life term for man who brutally killed woman on busy road in Pune

The Bombay High Court upheld the life sentence for Yogesh Bachhav, who stalked and fatally stabbed his cousin, Jyotsna, in 2010 after she rejected his marriage proposals.

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court recently upheld the conviction and life imprisonment handed down to a 33-year-old stalker who killed an engineering student in September 2010 on a busy road in Pimpri in Pune, as the victim, and her parents, did not pay heed to his marriage proposals.

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According to the prosecution, the convict, Yogesh Ramdas Bachhav, was the maternal cousin of the victim, Jyotsna, who was a third year Computer Science student at the DY Patil Engineering College in Akurdi, Pune.

The convict used to stalk and threaten the victim and her parents, insisting that the former should marry him. Due to such threats, the deceased and her parents were under constant stress. From September 1, 2010, he intensified his efforts and started following Jyotsna whenever she stepped out, and even blocked her way many times, all the while forcing her to marry him.

On September 3, 2010, when Jyotsna stepped out of her hostel room in the morning along with her roommate, Sadhana, Bacchav, as usual, followed them. When the young women reached their mess in Chinchwad and Sadhana alighted from the scooter and started walking towards it, the accused quickly reached the spot, took out a sickle and a knife from the dicky of his two-wheeler, and inflicted a blow with the sickle on Jyotsna. As she fell, he stabbed her multiple times with the knife. When Sadhana came to help Jyotsna, the accused stabbed her in her thigh and, later, stabbed himself in the abdomen and fell on the road.

A friend took Sadhana to a nearby clinic, whereas some passersby took Jyotsna to YCM Hospital in Pimpri, where she was declared dead.

Bachhav was arrested and, on February 18, 2015, the Pune sessions court convicted him for murdering Jyotsna, attempting to murder Sadhana, and attempted suicide, and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

A division bench of justice Revati Mohite Dere and justice Prithviraj Chavan recently upheld his conviction, and the life term handed down to him, observing that the trial court had rightly accepted the evidence of three eyewitnesses, including Sadhana, and convicted the accused.

“Cumulative and combine effect of all the evidence is sufficient to arrive at a conclusion that on the fateful day of September 3, 2010, it was the appellant who brutally assaulted and killed deceased Jyotsna by means of a knife and sickle. He stabbed her in the stomach, neck and chest, due to which, she sustained injuries to her vital organs. Consequently, she died on the spot,” said the bench, while dismissing Bachhav’s appeal.