MUMBAI: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday termed the rape and murder of a woman in Mumbai's Sakinaka as a "blot on humanity", and promised a fast-track trial in the case.
He asserted that the perpetrator would be punished severely.
"The trial in the case will be done on a fast track and the victim, who succumbed to injuries today, will get justice," Thackeray said in a statement.
The chief minister said he has discussed the case with state Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil and Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale.
"I have directed the authorities to expedite the investigation into the case," he said.
The woman, 34, died in a civic-run hospital in Mumbai the wee hours of Saturday a day after she was raped and brutalised with an iron rod in a stationary vehicle parked by the roadside at Sakinaka.
A 45-year-old man has been arrested in this connection, police have said.