New Delhi: The Supreme Court has upheld thedeath sentence to a cab driver and his male friend for raping and murdering a 22-year-old BPO employee in Pune in 2007.
A bench, headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu, dismissed the appeal filed by Purushottam Borate and his friend Pradeep Kokate against the order of the Bombay High Court which had awarded death penalty to the duo in 2012. Describing them as a "menace to society", the apex court held that their act fell within realms of "the rarest of the rare" category which merits death penalty and "none else".
"The collective conscience of the community is so shocked by this crime that imposing alternative sentence, i.e. a sentence of life imprisonment, on the accused persons would not meet the ends of justice," the bench, also comprising Justices S A Bobde and Arun Mishra, said.
Expressing concern over crimes against women, the bench said "society today has been infected with a lawlessness that has gravely undermined social order. Protection of society and stamping out criminal proclivity must be the object of law which may be achieved by imposing appropriate sentence."
"The gruesome act of raping a victim who had reposed her trust in the accused followed by a cold-blooded and brutal murder of the said victim coupled with the calculated and remorseless conduct of the accused persons after commission of the offence, we cannot resist from concluding that depravity of the appellants' offence would attract no lesser sentence than the death penalty," the bench added.
According to the prosecution, the victim, a Wipro BPO employee working at Hijewadi IT park in Pune, had on November 1, 2007 boarded the regular cab contracted by the company to ply the employees to report for night duty.
The cab driver Borate, who was accompanied by his friend Kokade, however, changed the route and took the victim to a remote place where she was raped by both of them. The duo then strangled her to death using her 'dupatta' and disfigured her face inflicting injuries with a sharp weapon to hide her identity. The body was recovered the next day, following which the two were arrested. A Pune sessions court had convicted the accused for the offence under sections 302 (murder), 376(2)(g) (gang rape), 364 and 404 read with Section 120-B of IPC, and consequently awarded death sentence.
The Bombay High Court had upheld the session court judgement.
