A division bench comprising Justice V M Kanade and Justice P D Kode made this observation while hearing the death confirmation appeals of Purushottam Borate and Pradeep Kokade, who were convicted for kidnapping, raping and murdering a female BPO employee in Pune in 2007.
"Apart from such private companies, what are the precautions that should be taken to ensure safety of women ? For example, there are so many females who avail services of pre-paid cabs from airports and so on. Are there any regulations in such cases?" Justice Kanade asked.
Stating that the police should have thoroughly probed the antecedents of the two accused, Justice Kode said, "We don't know since when the accused have been planning this, or if there were other incidents of a similar nature earlier. It creates a lingering doubt if there were others."
The bench also observed that the incident coincided with the fact that November 1, 2007 was the victim's last day at Wipro. "May be, the accused were aware about this," the court said.
Purshottam, a driver with a logistics company, who had picked up the victim from her home on that fateful night to take her to the Wipro office for her night shift, abducted her instead, and took her to a secluded spot. The duo then raped and murdered her.
While seeking the death sentence for the duo, public prosecutor Revati Dhere argued that they had conspired to abduct, rape and murder the innocent victim. They also showed no remorse or repentance and hence should be sent to the gallows, she argued.
