Nagpur (Maharashtra): A court in Wardha district is likely to pronounce the verdict in the sensational incident in which a young woman lecturer was doused with petrol and burnt by her spurned suitor on a road outside her college gates in Hinganghat town two years ago, officials said here on Wednesday.
On February 3, 2020, the victim was Ankita Pissude, 24, who was stalked by a youth Vikesh Nagrale, 27, from her home to her workplace, the MAK Mahila College, Hinganghat, and committed the heinous crime in full public view, shaking the conscience of the people.
Sustaining severe burns, she was rushed to a Nagpur hospital where she succumbed on February 10, sparking outrage all over the state, a month before the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown was clamped in the country.
The attacker, who was arrested hours later and later charged with murder as the case continued before the Fast Track Court in Hinganghat with the prosecution demanding the death penalty for Nagrale.
The Wardha Police had filed a 426-page charge sheet, 29 witnesses were examined during 64 hearings held during the past two years of the pandemic lockdown.
Interestingly, not a single witness turned hostile during the trial and the verdict will come exactly two years after Ankita Pissude’s demise (February 10, 2020), in the prosecution charge directed by eminent criminal lawyer Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam.
However, the accused Nagrale denied all the allegations, including that he had attacked or set afire the victim.
(IANS)
