Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Death penalty sought for rapist-killer of physiotherapist

Rebecca.Samervel@timesgroup.com

Mumbai:02.10.2019

A week after a 29-year-old man was found guilty of the 2016 rape and murder of a 24-year-old physiotherapist, the prosecution on Tuesday sought the death penalty for him. Making submissions on the quantum of sentence before the Dindoshi sessions court, special public prosecutor Raja Thakare urged the court not to show any leniency toward the accused, Debashish Dhara.

“What was the fault of the girl? It was not that he was provoked, or girl did some kind of action to incite him. She was just at her home. The action of the accused is utterly perverse,” Thakare said.

Additional sessions judge Abhishri Dnyaneshwar Deo is likely to pronounce the sentence on Friday. The maximum punishment Dhara faces is death, the minimum is life in jail.

The prosecution submitted that sympathy, if shown, would be misplaced and counterproductive and would send a wrong signal to the society. The prosecution said the victim was a brilliant, unmarried, young girl who had a bright future and whose parents had high expectations and hopes from her.

During hearing on Tuesday, Dhara claimed after his conviction, he had been assaulted in jail by other inmates. Seeking leniency, he said he was the only breadwinner in the family and wanted to be transferred to a jail in West Bengal so that he could be closer to his family.

His advocate Tushar Gangawane cited mitigating circumstances and said Dhara was young and was not a hardcore criminal. “Death penalty is the exception. There is a global move to abolish death sentence and 138 countries have abolished it,” the defence submitted.

However, citing several aggravating circumstances against Dhara, the prosecution submitted, “The accused has committed a heinous crime, not only of murder of a helpless and innocent woman, but has raped her and also committed unnatural offence leaving the body entirely naked…further he even tried to burn her by putting books on her body and setting it on fire, obviously with the intention of destroying the evidence.”

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