Chandigarh, Nov. 29 -- An MBA student's rape-murder in 2010 that sent shockwaves through the city. A probe that went cold for over a decade. A semen trail that finally brought the case back to life. More than 15 years later, one of Chandigarh's most haunting crimes reached its long-awaited conclusion as a local court awarded life sentence to the man who snatched a promising life. The convict, Monu Kumar, now 39, was a 24-year-old taxi driver when he had targeted the 21-year-old woman on July 30, 2010. He had found her alone, talking on the phone while sitting on her scooter near a secluded taxi stand in Sector 38 West. Attacking her from the back with a heavy stone, leaving her half dead, he dragged her into the bushes, where he raped her. The student was found in semi-naked condition and rushed to the PGIMER, Chandigarh, where she was declared brought dead. There were strangulation marks on the neck, and the body also bore injuries on the wrist, thigh and the back. "The convict does not deserve any sympathy," observed the court of additional district and sessions judge Dr Yashika while pronouncing the sentence. Convicted under Sections 302 (murder) and 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code, Kumar was also fined Rs.50,000 each for both offences. "This court is of the view that a requisite sentence has to be imposed upon the convict to protect the society as a legitimate response to the collective conscience. In other words it is an obligation on the court to the society, which has reposed faith in the court of law to curtail evil," the judgment noted. The court held that while the case did not fall under the "rarest of rare" category warranting capital punishment, it was "a case of its own kind", where a man was arrested 14 years after the incident, with the help of meticulous forensic work by police and scientists. According to police, Kumar was heavily intoxicated when he committed the crime. The chargesheet said Kumar took the victim's two phones, sold one in the Industrial Area and discarded the other in a jungle. He also signed a receipt using a false address. After his arrest in May 2024, the chargesheet was filed on August 2, 2024, and the charges were framed on August 21, 2024. The trial concluded in just over a year. Police said Kumar, who has studied till Class 7, hadn't even registered for an Aadhaar card to evade arrest. He worked as an inter-city taxi driver and mostly stayed out of town. A resident of now-razed Shahpur Colony in Sector 38 West, he originally hails from UttarPradesh. A father of two daughters, Kumar had separated from his wife in 2011. No one from his family showed up during the sentencing. Speaking to media outside the court, Kumar maintained that he was innocent and set up by the police. His counsel, Sunil Kumar Pandey, said they will appeal against the verdict before the high court. The defence counsel had argued that there was no direct evidence to nail his client. There were no eyewitnesses, and DNA testing was incomplete on four of the 26 markers. He also argued that the IMEI number of the mobile phone, which Kumar was accused of stealing from the victim, was different from the one he had sold to a shop. However, the court ruled, "A judge does not preside over a criminal trial merely to see that no innocent man is punished. A judge also presides to see that a guilty man does not escape." The court also appreciated the efforts of the police party, including investigating officer DSP Harditt Singh and SI Mohan Kashyap; and Dr Sunita, assistant director/scientist, stating that they contributed to the society at large by collecting evidence against a person who remained absconding for almost 14 years. When the quantum of sentence was pronounced, the convict prayed for leniency, claiming he was the only support for his aged mother and had health issues. The prosecution, on the other hand, demanded the death penalty, arguing that there were cases of similar nature pending against him. Having evaded arrest for over a decade, Kumar was nailed through semen preserved from the victim's body. He was apprehended in May 2024 after an eerily similar crime in Maloya reopened the probe that had gone cold for 14 years. Forensic analysis concluded that the semen samples from the bodies of both victims - the MBA student and a 40-year-old woman who met the same fate 2km away in Maloya locality in January 2022 - belonged to the same man. The second victim was found naked, with her mouth gagged with socks. Months later, Kumar's DNA also matched the semen found on the clothes of a 55-year-old woman, who was brutally murdered in Sector 54 on February 27, 2024. The trial against Kumar for the rape-murder of a woman in Maloya is going on in the same court. The proceedings in the Sector-54 murder are underway in another sessions court. Hearings of both cases are listed next for December 3. Police officials maintained that while under this life sentence, Kumar will get out within 14 to 15 years, they will press for capital punishment in the Maloya rape-murder case as well. As the FIR was filed in 2010, the sentencing is in line with the format prior to the Supreme Court's 2014 judgment, which specified that life sentence means imprisonment till the end of the convict's natural life....