A special court here today awarded death sentence to driver Chandrabhan Sanap for raping and murdering a 23-year-old software engineer from Andhra Pradesh in the city last year, saying the crime evoked the same reaction as the 2012 Delhi gangrape case case and damaged Mumbai's image as a safe city for women.
"The case falls under the category of the rarest of rare, hence the accused is awarded death sentence," said judge Vrushali Joshi of special women's court.
There were no mitigating circumstances in favour of Sanap (29), she said, adding "only the maximum punishment will send the message to the society and also to the similar like-minded persons".
"To show any leniency... In the case of such a heinous crime to someone who has shown no remorse after exhibiting extreme depraved mentality would be a travesty of justice.
"Because of this case security of women is again found (to be) in danger. The girl, who was an engineer working in TCS, staying independently, alighted at LTT railway station, went missing and her body was found in such a horrifying condition to her parents," the judge noted.
"It created a dent in the belief that Mumbai is still a safe city for women. The fact that at LTT railway station or at any place in Mumbai the young girls are not secure or safe but (can be) subjected to most savage form of rape and murder was shocking to one and all," the court held.
It created a feeling of helplessness among parents, the women, and in every section of the society, it said.
The court further remarked that the "social abhorrence and the national shock" created by Sanap's crime, which "created a fear psychosis and left a scar on the social order" was comparable to the reaction evoked by the December 2012 Delhi gangrape case.
