Decision on Khairlanji massacre convicts’ appeals Tuesday

NAGPUR - A division bench of the Bombay High Court will Tuesday pronounce its decision on the appeals of the eight people convicted for the 2006 Khairlanji massacre, in which four members of a Dalit family were brutally killed by a mob, an official said.

Six of the convicted who had been sentenced to death and two others to life imprisonment by a lower court in 2008, had challenged the verdict in the high court.

The case was being heard by Justice A.P. Lawande and Justice R.C. Chauhan of the high court’s Nagpur bench.

“We have sought death sentences for the two - Shishupal Dhande and Gopal Binjewar - awarded life terms besides charging all those found guilty under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1987,” CBI’s senior public prosecutor Ejaz Khan told IANS.

The trial court had awarded death to six accused: Shatrughana Dhande, Vishwanath Dhande, Ramu Dhande, Sakru Binjewar, Jagdish Mandlekar and Prabhkar Mandlekar.

Of the total 11 accused, three other accused were acquitted from the case, but the CBI did not challenge the acquittal.

In March-April this year, the hearing of the case continued on a daily basis for over 30 days before it was completed and the court went on vacation.

Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam had guided the trial and successfully secured the death penalty for six accused from Bhandara district court.

Defence lawyer Neeraj Khandewale - who represented all the accused members of Dhande clan - claimed that “the prosecution case was full of loopholes, based on lies, false witnesses, fabricated evidences.”

“We are optimistic of acquittal. However, if the verdict does not go in our favour, we shall file an appeal before the Supreme Court,” Khandewale told IANS.

It was on the evening of Sep 29, 2006 when a group of villagers had descended on the Bhotmange family in Khairlanji village in Bhandara district.

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, gang-raped the women, shoved sticks into their private parts and then hacked them to death.

Even the two sons were subjected to brutality by mutilating their private parts - all this in full public view of many other villagers.

Her 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.