Driver who killed TCS techie Esther Anuhya sentenced to death

A special women’s court in Mumbai on Friday awarded the death sentence to 29-year-old driver Chandrabhan Sanap for raping and murdering a 23-year-old software engineer at suburban Kurla last year, holding it falls under “the rarest of the rare cases.”

“The case falls under the category of the rarest of rare, hence the accused is awarded death sentence... he must be hanged by his neck till he is dead,” said Special Women’s court judge Vrushali Joshi pronouncing the verdict.

Sanap was convicted under IPC Section 302 (murder), Section 376 (rape) and Section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) for raping and killing the techie, after the court agreed with the prosecution, which had examined 39 witnesses in the case.

The prosecution demanded death for Sanap, saying that sympathy to him would send a wrong signal and neither the victim’s parents nor society would feel that justice has been delivered.

The victim hailing from Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh, went missing from Lokmanya Tilak terminus near Kurla after arriving by train from home in the early hours of January 5, 2014. Her decomposed body was found off the Eastern Express Highway in suburban Bhandup on January 16, 2014.

According to police, Sanap spotted her sitting alone at the railway station and offered to drop her at Andheri on his two-wheeler.He then took her to an isolated spot and strangled her when she resisted his attempt to rob her.

Sanap, who worked as a porter and then as a driver in Nashik, is a history-sheeter.

Mumbai Police’s crime branch arrested Sanap in early March last year after an exhaustive scrutiny of 36 CCTV footages at the railway station and grilling of about 2,500 people.

Welcoming the verdict, the victim’s father S Jonathan Surendra Prasad said that the death penalty to Sanap would instil fear among those who think of attempting such heinous crimes against women, in future.

He also thanked the people who expressed solidarity with his daughter by raising their voice against the incident and said he felt “indebted” towards the court, police and mediamen, who highlighted the issue.“I have been wrongly implicated. I have not committed any crime. I never expected capital punishment,” he told reporters outside.

Sanap said his family was unaware of his conviction and sentencing and he has not seen his daughter for past two years.

Among the 39 prosecution witnesses were four who deposed before the court and identified Sanap as being at the station on the intervening night of January 4 and 5, 2015.

Two of these witnesses also told the court that they had seen Sanap with the victim, who lived at a hostel in Andheri.

The prosecution further alleged that the CCTV footage acted as corroborative evidence. It further argued that several of the victim’s personal belongings which she had carried as part of her baggage on the train were recovered at the instance of the accused.