Evidence nailed guard in Mumbai's Powai rape case

MUMBAI: In a rare case where an accused was convicted despite the victim’s inability to identify him due to her intoxication at the time of the incident, a special court stressed on the fact that the victim had lodged the FIR against an unknown person. “If she wanted to implicate the accused in this case, she would have mentioned the name of the accused in the FIR,” special judge Vrushali Joshi said in the 99-page judgment copy.
On Thursday, the court ýconvicted a 33-year-old security guard, Promod Upadhayaya, of raping a ýwoman who was returning home after a night out with her friends in January 2014.ý The accused was sentenced to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment for rape and seven years’ imprisonment for robbery.
The court, while convicting the accused, rubbished the defence claims and said that the fact that the woman had prior sexual experience and had taken contraceptives, did not render the sexual assault redundant. “Bite marks on the victim were consistent with dental impression of the accused. It proves it was an act of the accused,” the judge said.
A part of the clinching evidence, the court observed, was a chemical analysis report which shows that mud found on the accused’s clothes and belt matched with that found on the victim’s clothes and earth from the spot. “This is the most clinching circumstance against the accused…,” the judge said. The court also pointed out that Upadhyaya had no explanation for the injuries he had soon after the incident. The court considered the statement of a witness, a fellow security guard, who said the accused had told him that the woman was vomiting and he was going to see her.
The court also ruled out the possibility of the act being consensual.