Pune BPO rape: Special public prosecutor argues for death sentence

Ujjwal Nikam, the special public prosecutor in the sensational gang rape and murder case of Wipro BPO employee Jyotikumari Chaudhari, on Monday urged the court to impose capital punishment on the two convicts in the case.

Principal district and sessions judge Anant Badar is likely to sentence the convicts on Tuesday.

Nikam said it was the rarest of rare crimes and both convicts, Purushottam Dasharath Borate and Pradeep Yashvant Kokade, deserve death punishment.

Terming Borate and Kokade as incorrigible criminals, Nikam stressed on the cruelty displayed by them. He pointed out to the court that they first raped the innocent young woman and then strangulated her. Not stopping there, they went to the extent of cutting the blood vein of her right hand. Moreover, he said, they tried to bludgeon her face with a boulder to suppress her identity. November 1, 2007 was the last day of Jyotikumari’s job at Wipro BPO and Borate knew that so he along with Kokade abducted her and committed the crime, Nikam said.

After committing the crime, both convicts have not shown an iota of repentance till the judgment was pronounced, Nikam argued.

Defence lawyer, Pavan Kulkarni said, “This is not the rarest of the rare crimes and therefore minimum punishment should be awarded to the convicts. The murder was not brutal, so the convicted do not deserve death sentence.”

Badar on Saturday held Borate and Kokade guilty of kidnapping, gang-raping and murdering Jyotikumari.

This was the first case of rape and murder of a BPO employee in the state and second in the country. Jyotikumari was killed within months after Pratibha Shrikant Murty, a BPO employee from Bangalore, was raped and murdered by the cab driver.