09 October,2010 07:50 AM IST | | Agencies
Cab driver Shiva Kumar was yesterday sentenced to 'life imprisonment till death' for the 2005 rape and murder of Hewlett Packard (HP) India employee Pratibha Murthy (28) in the city.
The crime had stunned the tech hub and forced IT firms to enhance security for the safety of their women employees.
"I got justice. Though my happiness has gone with her (Pratibha), she is somewhere up watching all these happenings," a tearful Gowramma, Pratibha's mother, said.
Pratibha's uncle S. Srinivas said he was not satisfied and had wanted capital punishment.
The trial began in January 2007 in a sessions court and was shifted to a fast track court in December 2009. On Wednesday, the judge held Kumar guilty.
Even before judge B V Guddali began reading the sentence, the accused pleaded he had not commit the crime.
"Please consider my plea," a tense Shiva Kumar begged the judge. Outside court, his wife threatened to commit suicide if he was not set free.
