2013 Dalit 'honour' killings: Nashik court sentences 6 to death
A Nashik court on Saturday announced death sentence for all the six convicts in the 2013 Sonai "honour killing" case involving the killing of three Dalit youth.
The court also slapped a fine of Rs 20,000 each for the killings.
On January 1, 2013, three youths were brutally killed in Sonai village of Ahmednagar district and their mutilated body parts were found in a septic tank.
Earlier this month, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam had demanded death penalty for the six convicts, saying they displayed extreme brutality in committing the cold-blooded crime.
“This is a typical case of honour killing, where some upper caste had brutally murdered three youths belonging to the scheduled tribe, just because one of the deceased was in love with the daughter of the accused. Deceased Sachin Gharu was an innocent man and in no way had made provocations for the violence. The anger of the accused went up to the extent that they cut the hand and legs of Gharu in eight pieces and the same were recovered from the borewells by the police. The accused also killed the other two eye-witnesses Sandeep Thanwar and Rahul Kandhare, by throwing the former one in a septic tank, while hitting the latter on his head, in order to get rid of prosecution,” Ujjwal Nikam had said.
However, the Defence advocate had urged leniency citing the age of the convicts. While the youngest convict is 23, the eldest is 52.
The court on January 15 had convicted all the six accused under various sections of the IPC, including murder and criminal conspiracy for killing Sachin Gharu (24), Sandeep Thanvar (25) and Rahul Kandare (20).
The killings were prompted by an intercaste love affair between Gharu and a girl from the Maratha community.