A sessions court here has framed charges against a 45-year-old man in the case related to the rape and murder of a woman in Sakinaka area of Mumbai, a government lawyer said on Thursday.
The brutality of the crime, which took place inside a tempo on September 10, had shocked the city, creating outrage. The charges were framed against the accused on Tuesday by additional sessions judge H C Shende after he pleaded not guilty, the lawyer said. Senior counsel Raja Thackeray, along with special public prosecutor Mahesh Mule, is representing the state.
The accused has been charged for rape and murder under the IPC and also the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (as the victim belonged to an SC community), Mule said. On Thursday, the prosecution filed its list of witnesses and supplied relevant documents to the accused's lawyers. Next hearing will be on November 15.
Police had filed charge-sheet 18 days after the 34-year-old woman was raped and brutalised with an iron rod by the accused who was arrested within a few hours of the crime. The woman died during treatment the next day.
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