BPO employee rape and murder case: Convicts object to death sentence, Bombay high court asks state, Centre to file responses

Source: hindustantimes.com

The Bombay high court (HC) on Thursday issued a notice to the Central and state governments, after two men convicted for the rape and murder of a Pune BPO employee in 2007 filed separate petitions seeking to halt their execution and commute their sentence to life imprisonment.

Purushottam Borate and Pradeep Kokade have contended that there was an inordinate and avoidable delay of 1,509 days in the execution of the sentence and this is a violation of their fundamental rights. They approached the HC after a sessions court, on April 10, issued the death warrant scheduling June 24 as the date of execution. The petition has been posted for further hearing on June 14.

According to the pleas, they had submitted mercy petitions to the governor on July 10, 2015, two weeks after their death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court (SC). However, the petition was rejected 774 days later. There has been a delay of 1,509 days in total, the petition claimed. They also claimed they were illegally kept in solitary confinement at Yerawada Central Jail for seven years. In his petition, Kokade said they were shifted to solitary confinement by prison officials on the day of the conviction, violating the Criminal Procedure Code.

The incident took place on Nov 1, 2007, when the 22-year-old was on her way to work. Borate, who was 26 at the time, worked as a cab driver for the company she was employed with. He was to drop her to office. His friend, Kokate, who was 20 at the time, was also in the vehicle. The two men took her to a secluded spot in Gahunje, 25 km from Pune, and raped and murdered her. They were arrested the next day. On March 20, 2012 a Pune sessions court sentenced them to death. The HC  upheld it.