Supreme Court acquits accused Chandrabhan Sanap in Esther Anuhaya rape-murder case

The Supreme Court on January 28 acquitted accused and death row prisoner Chandrabhan Sanap in the Esther Anuhya rape and murder case, according to an ANI report.

The SC has directed the Maharashtra government to release Sanap forthwith, it added.

Death row convict Sanap was booked for the rape and murder of a 23-year-old Mumbai techie Esther Anuhya and was awarded the death penalty by a special women’s court in 2015.

He challenged his death penalty by moving to the Bombay High Court. Upon rejection of his appeal by the High Court, Sanap moved to the Supreme Court. Today, the SC acquitted him after finding gaps in the prosecution story.

Notably, this is the second death row prisoner acquitted in the case. In early January 2025, the Kerala High Court acquitted and released Jomon from Viyyur Central Prison in Thrissur.

Esther Anuhya case

Esther Anuhya, a software engineer from Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh, returned to Mumbai after a nearly two-week Christmas break had arrived at the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Kurla early on the morning of January 5, 2015. Sanap, who was pretending to be a taxi driver, offered her to drop at her hostel in South Mumbai, according to a report by NDTV  in 2015.

However, when Esther left the station, there was no cab, and Sanap convinced them to drop her on his motorcycle. In the middle of the ride, Sanap stopped his bike at Eastern Express Highway near Kanjurmarg, pulling Esther to the bushes in an attempt to rape her. When she resisted, he hit her head and strangled her with a dupatta. Later, he tried to burn her body, the report said.

The case came to light after Esther's family reported she was missing.

"We ourselves looked for my daughter after she went missing. And finally, after ten days, her body was recovered. No parent should face the kind of trauma that I have faced," Mr Jonathan Prasad, Esther's father, told NDTV.