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Dalit Family Massacre Case: Death Penalty of Six Convicts Commuted to Lifer

In Khairlanji Dalit family massacre case of 2006, the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court has commuted death sentence awarded to 6 convicts into life imprisonment, said media reports.

The life term for the convicts will run for a period of 25 years, including the time they have already served in jail, reports said.

Announcing the much-awaited verdict, a division bench comprising Justices A P Lawande and R C Chauhan rejected the CBI’ plea challenging the lower court’s ruling giving life to two of the eight accused while sentencing to death six people, said reports.

The judgement was delivered via video conferencing as one of the judges of the division bench Justice Ravindra Chavan is posted at Mumbai, reports said.

Earlier, the six accused were awarded the capital punished by Bhandara sessions court and other two were given life imprisonment.

The six death-convict included Shatrughana Dhande, Vishwanath Dhande, Ramu Dhande, Sakru Binjewar, Jagdish Mandlekar and Prabhkar Mandlekar.

The trial court had given life term to Shishupal Dhande and Gopal Binjewar. Three more accused were acquitted.

The horrific incident unfolded on the evening of September 29, 2006, when a group of villagers descended on the Bhotmange family in Khairlanji village in Maharashtra’s Bhandara district, IANS reported.

They dragged out Surekha Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange, 44, her sons Roshan, 23, Sudhir, 21 and daughter Priyanka, 18, assaulted them brutally, paraded them naked in the village, sexually abused them with sticks and then hacked them to death. The women were gangraped.

The attackers mutilated the private parts of the two sons – all this in full public view of many other villagers.

Surekha’s husband, Bhaiyyalal, who had gone to work in the fields also witnessed the incident while hiding in a nearby hut. He managed to escape the mob brutality.

A few days before the incident – which led to widespread Dalit protests all over Maharashtra – Surekha Bhotmange had lodged a police complaint in a land dispute against some villagers.

The attacks on the Bhotmanges were a revenge for Surekha’s daring.

(Based on internet reports)

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