Thane: A Special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) Court has sentenced a man with 16 cases registered against him to rigorous imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life for the 2022 midnight rape and robbery of a migrant woman inside her home. His 18-year-old associate was awarded five year’ of rigorous imprisonment for abducting the woman’s husband to facilitate the rape. The court imposed a collective fine of Rs 30.4 lakh on the duo.The main accused, Nishant Mishra alias Monu Raider, is named in 16 chargesheets for grave offences such as murder, dacoity and extortion pending trial.The court found both individuals guilty under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and MCOCA, the stringent anti-organised crime law, while directing legal authorities to grant rehabilitation compensation to the survivor.The crime occurred during the intervening night of Jan 18 and 19, 2022, when a labourer couple was asleep in their rented room. Around 1 am, the duo knocked on the door, and as soon as the husband opened it, they barged inside. The teenage accomplice scuffled with the husband, pushed him and forcibly took him away on a two-wheeler to an isolated spot, wrongfully confining him there for several hours. Meanwhile, the prime accused bolted the door from the inside, threatened to kill the couple and raped her.Before fleeing at dawn, he ransacked the room and took away Rs 1,000 kept inside an aluminium container. The couple confided in their landlady the next morning before approaching the police to register a case.During the trial, the prosecution examined 13 witnesses, including medical officers from Sir J.J. Hospital whose findings of teeth bite contusions and physical struggle corroborated the victim’s unshaken testimony.
