Mumbai, September 24
The Bhandara district and sessions court today awarded death penalty to six persons found guilty of brutally assaulting and murdering four members of a Dalit family on September 29, 2006. Two others were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Those sentenced to hang include Sakru Binjewar, Shatrughan Dhande, Vishwanath Dhande, Ramu Dhande, Jagdish Mandlekar and Prabhakar Mandlekar. Gopal Binjewar and Shishpal Dhande have been given life sentences.
The case was being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation after the brutal murders sparked off riots by members of the Dalit community across Maharashtra.
The victims, Surekha Bhaiyalal Bhotmange, her daughter Priyanka and sons Sudhir and Roshan were lynched and their bodies set on fire over a land dispute in the Khairlanji village of Bhandara district in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region, the chargesheet filed by the CBI stated. Surekha’s husband Bhaiyalal is the only surviving member of the family. The Dalits were the only members of the community to own some land in the area and this was not liked by the killers, the prosecution had stated.
Allegations that the women were raped before being murdered were dismissed during the framing of the
chargesheet.
