Nayana Pujari’s body was recovered from the Zarewadi forests in Khed taluka on October 9, 2009. (Representational Image) Nayana Pujari’s body was recovered from the Zarewadi forests in Khed taluka on October 9, 2009. (Representational Image)

The Shivaji Nagar Court in Pune on Tuesday awarded death sentence to all the three convicts in the murder and rape case of software engineer Nayana Pujari. The court had on Monday found the three accused guilty, seven years after the case first came to light.

Special judge judge L L Yenkar, the fourth judge to hear the case since the trial commenced in 2011, pronounced Yogesh Raut, Mahesh Thakur and Vishwas Kadam guilty under sections 376 (rape) , 302 (murder), 120B(criminal conspiracy) 361 (kidnapping) along with several other counts of Indian Penal Code.

Pujari, an engineer with a software company in Kharadi, was abducted on October 7, 2009. Her body was recovered from the Zarewadi forests in Khed taluka on October 9, 2009. Investigations revealed that the victim was gang-raped in a car and robbed of cash by using her ATM card before she was strangulated and bludgeoned to death in the forest area.

Police probe later led to the arrest of four persons including one Rajesh Chaudhari, who later turned an approver in the case.

Special Public Prosecutor Harshad Nimbalkar said Chaudhari was acquitted by the court. Also, when the trial was underway, main accused Raut escaped from the Sassoon Hospital here on September 17, 2011, while being escorted to the hospital for medical treatment. He was later re-arrested from Shirdi after 20 months.

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