Six get death in barbaric Khairlanji massacre

NI Wire

Mumbai

Wed, 24 Sep 2008: 

In one of the worst cases of atrocities against human beings, the Bhandara (Maharastra) Sessions Court on Wednesday pronounced death sentence to six and lifer to two others in the Khairlanji massacre in which four members of a Dalit family were brutally killed on September 29, 2006.

Earlier on Sep 15, Bhdara Sessions court had convicted eight people in murder case and acquitted three others out of the 11 accused.

Mahipal Dhande, Dharmpal Dhande, Purshottam Titirmare were found not guilty by the court in its Sep 15 verdict.

Sakru Binjewar, Shatrughan Dhande, Vishwanath Dhande, Ramu Dhande, Jagdish Mandlekar and Prabhakar Mandlekar were awarded death sentence for the murder while Gopal Binjewar and Shishpal Dhande were given life-term imprisonment.

It is to mention here that though the incident which was a result of a land dispute in which a group of villagers in Khairlanji (about 780 km from Mumbai) from Kunbi OBC caste killed four members of a Dalit family, the case was later taken up as a case of atrocities against Dalits.

The head of the Dalit family Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange had managed to escape from the hands of a merciless mob, while his 44-year-old wife Surekha Bhotmange, 18-year-old daughter Priyanka, sons, Roshan, 23, and Sudhir, 21 were viciously tortured and then killed.

Though the case had hardly got any coverage of national media, but protests by Dalits in several parts of the country forced the authority to act on. According to primary investigation, both Bhotmange's wife, daughter were sexually assaulted, however, the CBI probe denied it.

It was also accused that local politicians and police had tried to cover up the incident and even state Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil had admitted that there were laxity in the entire probe.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) following widespread protests across the country had filed a charge-sheet against 11 of 46 accused on December 27, though Bhaiyyalal testified that nearly 50 villagers were involved. The accused were arrested on October 1.

The court though did not term it under Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, but the gruesome act is enough to proclaim the verdict with the highest of punishment.