Mumbai driver convicted for rape, murder of woman techie from Andhra Pradesh

Mumbai: A special women's court in Mumbai on Tuesday convicted a 29-year-old driver for the rape and murder of an Andhra Pradesh-based woman software engineer in suburban Kurla here last year.

Special Judge Vrushali Joshi convicted accused Chandrabhan Sanap after agreeing with the prosecution, which examined 39 witnesses in the case. Sanap was convicted under IPC Section 302 (murder), Section 376 (rape) and Section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence). The court is likely to hear the arguments on sentencing tomorrow.

Mumbai Police's crime branch had arrested Sanap in early March last year about two months after the murder of the 23-year-old techie, who was a native of Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh and was employed as assistant system engineer with IT major TCS at its office in suburban Goregaon.

Investigators caught Sanap after an exhaustive scrutiny of 36 CCTV footages at the railway station and grilling of about 2,500 people. The victim went missing from Lokmanya Tilak terminus near Kurla after arriving by train from Andhra Pradesh in the early hours of January 5, 2014.

According to police, Sanap spotted her sitting alone at the railway station and offered to drop her off at Andheri on his two-wheeler. Subsequently, he took her to an isolated spot and strangled her when she resisted his attempt to rob her.

The decomposed body of the techie was found off the Eastern Express Highway in suburban Bhandup on January 16, 2014. Sanap, who worked as a porter here and then as a driver in Nashik, is a history-sheeter.