Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Monday set aside death penalty awarded to a man (then 29) for the rape and murder of a 24-year-old physiotherapist in December 2016.
“The finding of conviction and resultantly the imposition of death sentence upon respondent Debashish Dhara, imposed by judgement dated Oct 4, 2019, by the additional sessions judge is set aside,’’ said Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande, adding that Dhara “is set at liberty.”
The state had moved HC for confirmation of the death sentence. Additional sessions judge A D Deo had found Dhara guilty of several charges, including murder, rape, unnatural sexual offences and house trespass. Dhara used to work in a jewellery store near the victim’s residence and was caught almost two months later from West Bengal.
According to the prosecution, the incident occurred on the intervening night of Dec 5 and 6, 2016. The victim stayed with her family in a Mumbai suburb chawl. There was a separate mezzanine room in front of the house above a toilet. It was used for her studies and as a bedroom. On Dec 5, the victim returned home from work around 10pm. After dinner, she went into the room as usual. Around 3am, a neighbour knocked on the parents’ door and informed them about smoke coming from the victim’s room which was bolted from outside.
They opened the door and found smoke everywhere and clothes and books burning. After extinguishing the fire, they found their daughter lying on the floor with jeans wrapped around her neck. Police took her to a hospital which opined she was “brought dead.” The postmortem report stated there was forcible sexual intercourse on the victim and she died due to strangulation.
The trial judge noted that the crime fell in the “rarest of rare category” for the “gruesome, ghastly or horrendous act” of the accused executed with “extreme mental perversion not worthy of human condonation.”
Advocate Yug Chaudhry, for Dhara, argued that prosecution’s case was based on circumstantial evidence and Dhara was implicated on suspicion. Prosecutor Tanveer Khan supported the trial court’s verdict. Advocate Siddharth Jagushte, representing the victim’s father, told
TOI the family will consider challenging the verdict before the
Supreme Court.
