A 38-year-old woman from Mumbai undergoes a liver biopsy for chronic hepatitis C infection. Histopathology reveals scattered individual hepatocytes with shrunken, hyperchromatic nuclei, dense cytoplasm, and fragmented chromatin. The affected cells are surrounded by intact hepatocytes with no significant inflammatory infiltrate around these dying cells. The portal tracts show chronic inflammation with lymphocytic infiltration. Which mechanism of cell death is most prominently demonstrated by the scattered individual hepatocytes?