Three men were convicted today by a special court of killing a 28-year-old software engineer near here after kidnapping and gang-reaping her eight years ago.
Special Judge L L Yenkar, who convicted the trio - Yogesh Raut, Mahesh Thakur and Vishwas Kadam, acquitted the fourth accused in the case, who had turned approver in the sensational 2009 gangrape-cum-murder of techie Nayana Pujari.
The court is to hear tomorrow the arguments on quantum of sentences for the three convicts.
The trio were convicted of committing seven counts of various offences including those of kidnapping, gang-rape, murder, robbery, misappropriation of property after hatching a criminal conspiracy in accordance with their common intention.
The trio, however, were acquitted of three other charges including those of abduction with an aim to commit murder, causing hurt while committing the robbery and the destruction of evidence as the prosecution failed to prove these charges.
Pujari, who worked at an IT firm in Kharadi was kidnapped on October 7, 2009 evening from Kharadi bypass, while waiting for a transport to return home.
Her body was recovered two days later from Zarewadi forest area in Khed tehsil of Pune district.
The prosecution told the court that the investigation revealed that the victim was kidnapped and later gang-raped in a car. The woman was also robbed of her cash, withdrawn from the ATM using her debit-cum-ATM card, before having been strangulated and bludgeoned to death in the forest.
The investigation led to the arrest of four persons - Yogesh Raut, Mahesh Thakur and Vishwas Kadam and Rajesh Chaudhari.
Chaudhari later turned approver in the case.
Earlier during the trial, prime accused Raut had escaped from the Sassoon General Hospital on September 17, 2011, while being escorted to the hospital for treatment. He was, however, arrested from Shirdi 20 months later.
Advocate Harshad Nimbalkar, who was appointed as the special public prosecutor in the case, said, "Tomorrow we will press for the death punishment to all three convicts as this is a fit case under the 'rarest of rare' category."
He said 37 prosecution witnesses were examined during the trial.
Nimbalkar also said Chaudhari, who turned approver in the case, has been let off by the court.
Abhijit Pujari, the victim's husband, who was present along with Nayana's sister Manisha Ganbavle, too demanded death penalty for all the three convicts.
Nimbalkar said that the trial, which lasted for six years, saw four judges adjudicating the case.
The brutal rape and murder of Nayana Pujari had brought to the fore the lack of security for women working in the IT and BPO sectors.
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