A special Mumbai women's court on Friday awarded the death sentence to Chandrabhan Sanap, prime accused in the rape and murder of software engineer Esther Anuhya in January last year in the city. Delivering the judgement, the court agreed with the prosecution that the case falls under the rarest of the rare categories. The 29-year-old driver was convicted of murder, rape and causing disappearance of evidence of offence.

A native of Andhra Pradesh, Anuhya was 23 when Sanap promised her a ride home on his bike from Mumbai's Lokmanya Tilak Terminus late at night, before brutally raping and killing her. Sanap was arrested by the Mumbai Police two months later, after investigations that involved grilling over 2,500 people and sifting through the footage of 36 CCTV cameras.