3 found guilty of techie's rape, murder

Pune: Three men found guilty of 28-year-old software engineer Nayana Pujari's gang-rape and murder in Pune eight years ago, were sentenced to death today.

Pujari, an engineer, was abducted near the Kharadi bypass on October 7, 2009 while awaiting her transport back home. Her body was recovered from the Zarewadi forests in Khed taluka on October 9, 2009.

The three, however, had been 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. In the investigations that followed, the police arrested Raut, Thakur, Kadam and fourth accused Rajesh Chaudhari, who was later granted pardon by a court for turning an approver and recording his confessional statement before a magistrate. Investigations revealed that men had raped her in a vehicle before robbing her of Rs 61,000 using her ATM card. The three then gang-raped her in the moving vehicle. However, he later mustered courage and agreed to turn an approver in the case. Special public prosecutor Harshad Nimbalkar said; "This is a fit case falling under the rarest of rare case concept and we will press for death penalty for all tje three convicts tomorrow". On September 17, 2011, Raut managed to escape from police custody while being taken to a hospital for treatment and was nabbed only in May 2013 after the shocking case of Nirbhaya gangrape case in New Delhi. He was later re-arrested from Shirdi after 20 months. As many as 37 witnesses were examined during the trials, according to Pune Mirror. The husband of the victim, Abhijit Pujari, said that the only fitting punishment for the convicts would be death penalty.

The trial lasted for three years and saw four judges adjudicating the case.

The brutal crime brought to the fore the lack of security for women working in the IT and BPO sectors.