Wipro BPO employee case : After delay in hanging gangrape convicts, High Court converts death sentence to life term for 35 years
Mumbai/Pune, July 29, 2019 : The Bombay High Court on Monday commuted the death penalty of two convicts in the 2007 Wipro BPO, Pune, gang-rape and murder case to life imprisonment.
Justice Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Justice Swapna Joshi converted the death sentence to life sentence on the ground that there had been an inordinate delay in executing Purushottam Borate and Pradeep Kokade – for the rape and murder of the 22-year old victim.
The President of India had already rejected their mercy petition in 2017. The Pune district court had issued a death warrant fixing June 24 as the scheduled date of their hanging. However, the two convicts moved the High Court through their lawyer Yug Chowdhary stating that there was delay of 1,509 days, or more than 50 months.
The victim hailed from Uttar Pradesh, and she was a science graduate from the University of Pune. She was staying with her sister and brother-in-law in Panchavati area on Pashan road and had joined the Wipro call centre as an associate in December, 2006. The incident had taken place on November 1, 2007. Borate, the cab driver with the BPO, had picked her up in the office cab at 10 pm for her night shift, along with Kokade.
She was talking on phone with her boyfriend and did not realise where they were headed. At 11pm, her boyfriend heard her ask the driver why had he stopped the car after which the phone was disconnected and was unreachable. Her body was found next day near Gahunje village. Her veins were cut with a knife and she was strangulated with a dupatta. The duo smashed her head with stone till she died.
