Chandrabhan Sanap, the accused in the murder of Esther Anuhya, a software engineer hailing from Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh was awarded the death sentence by a special women’s court in Mumbai on Friday.
In addition to the death sentence, Judge Vrushali V Joshi directed the convict to pay Rs 50,000 as compensation to the deceased’s family as compensation besides awarding him life term for rape and seven years of rigorous imprisonment for kidnap, robbery and destruction of evidence.
The judge observed the case to be of “rarest of rare ” category while awarding the death sentence.
Special judge Vrushali Joshi said in court, "This is the rarest of rare case. For the charge of murder, the accused shall be hanged by the neck till death."
Sanap had raped Anuhya and upon resistance, he hit her head with a stone and strangled her. Sanap left the scene with her luggage after setting her ablaze with fuel amidst the bushes off the Eastern Express Highway in Bhandup, on the outskirts of Mumbai.
Her decomposed body was found on January 17, twelve days after she went went missing on January 5.
According to CCTV footage obtained by the police from the station, Sanap was seen consuming liquor 30 minutes prior to the meeting and carrying the victim’s luggage posing as a cab driver.
The victim was an employee of TCS and used to reside in a hostel in Andheri. After her Christmas vacation at home, she had arrived in Mumbai in the wee hours of January 5. Sanap had reportedly asked for Rs 300 for dropping her at her hostel on his bike, but instead he took her to a secluded spot near Bhandup.
Sanap broke down outside court and told media that he had been wrongly implicated and had not committed any crime.