Bombay HC delivers judgement on Khairlanji Dalit killings case
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In an important judgement, the Bombay high court has commuted the death sentence of six convicts in the infamous Khairlanji Dalit killings case to 25 years imprisonment. The Khairlanji incident happened on September 29, 2006 in which four members of a Dalit family -- Surekha Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange, her daughter Priyanka, sons Sudhir and Roshan –were brutally murdered by an angry mob in Khairlanji village in Maharashtra.
Earlier, a trial court of S S Dass had awarded capital punishment to six persons on September 24, 2008. Two others were given life imprisonment. The six convicts whose death sentence has been commuted to life are Sakru Binjewar, Ramu Dhande, Shatrughan Dhande, Vishwanath Dhande, Jagdish Mandlekar and Prabhakar Mandlekar. Gopal Binjewar and Shishupal Dhande were awarded life imprisonment.
Overturning the trial court's judgement, Justice A P Lavande of the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court held that all the eight convicts will undergo 25 years of life imprisonment including the period they have already spent in jail. Justice Lavande pronounced the judgment while Justice R C Chavan, who is on an assignment at the high court in Mumbai, joined him via video conference in Nagpur.
This is the first time that a judgment has been pronounced by a division bench through video conference. Pronouncing the operative part of the verdict, Justice Lavande disposed of the appeals of defence as well as the prosecution. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had appealed for the enhancement of the sentence of two convicts, who were sentenced for life.
The bench had heard the matter on a daily basis from March 29 and reserved it for judgment before the summer vacation.
