The Bombay High Court has upheld life imprisonment awarded to a person hailing from Uttar Pradesh on charges of raping and killing a 19-year-old girl at her house here in 2006.
Hearing an appeal filed by the 27-year-old convict, Ramesh Yadav, the court held that the prosecution had established beyond reasonable doubt that the girl had met with homicidal death and was raped before she was murdered.
"We find no merit in the appeal and hereby dismiss it", said Justices P N Deshmukh and Vijaya Tahilramani.
The court further held that the evidence adduced by the prosecution showed that appellant had visited flat of the deceased in suburban Dahisar on May 15, 2006 and raped her.
The court also held that the victim was killed as she resisted the brutal act of rape.
The father of the girl had found her lying dead on a cot in the house in a semi-nude condition. He called a doctor who pronounced her dead. Police was called who found that the victim was killed with a knife. The fingerprints of the accused matched with the fingerprints found on the knife.
The cell phone of the victim was missing but from the CDRs the police found that calls were made to one Babulal Yadav at Akuri village in Uttar Pradesh. A police team went to UP and traced the accused there. He was brought to Mumbai to stand trial for murder and rape of the deceased victim.
During the trial, the prosecution proved that the appellant was in possession of cell phone of the deceased and used it to make calls at his native place after the incident.
The court also took into account a report of Chemical Analyser which indicated that the semen of the accused having group "AB" was found on his clothes and also on the bedsheet where the victim was lying when she was found dead. The same group semen was also found on the clothes of the deceased.
All these circumstances established the presence of the accused on the spot at the time of commission of the offence, the judges said.
The injuries suffered by the victim showed that she had resisted the rape committed upon her. The injuries also indicated that she was murdered, the judges opined.