9 get life term for killing BJP & VHP leaders in Amreli in ’13
At the time of the incident, while Ajit was the BJP's Lilia taluka unit president, Bharat was the sarpanch of Gundaran village in Lilia taluka and president of the VHP's Lilia taluka unit.
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The court also imposed a fine of Rs 21,500 on each of the accused while ruling that the convicts will serve their sentence awarded under various Sections of the IPC concurrently.
A court in Amreli on Wednesday awarded life imprisonment to nine men after finding them guilty of murdering a BJP leader and his brother who was an office bearer of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). A financial dispute triggered the killings in Gundaran village of the Amreli district in 2013, as per the case details.
The court of Additional Sessions Judge Dharmendra Shrivastava in Savarkundla town pronounced the nine accused guilty of murdering Ajit Khuman (32) and his younger brother Bharat Khuman (26) in 2013. Those convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment are Mamad Dal, his son Khalid Dal, and their relatives Salim Dal, Hakim Dal, Dinmahammad Dal, Yunus Lakhapota, his son Ilias alias Munno Lakhapota, Sumar Dal and Usman Dal. Mamad’s elder son Imran Dal was also facing a murder trial but the case against him was abated after he died in 2017.
At the time of the incident, while Ajit was the BJP’s Lilia taluka unit president, Bharat was the sarpanch of Gundaran village in Lilia taluka and president of the VHP’s Lilia taluka unit. According to the prosecution, the two brothers were hacked to death by the accused on November 30, 2013, while they were overseeing the work of construction of a godown in Gundaran. The assault, as per case details, was the result of a dispute over the repayment of money Bharat and Ajit had borrowed from Mamad Dal.
“Eyewitnesses supported our case and so did the scientific evidence, including blood stains on weapons used by the accused and later recovered by police. Four of the accused claimed they were falsely being implicated in the case and requested the court to get their brain mapping tests done. However, the tests revealed that the four were hiding details of their involvement in the crime and thus, strengthened our case. The court took all of this into account and convicted all the nine accused,” Anil Desai, special public prosecutor in the case, told The Indian Express.
Desai said that the nine men who were lodged in judicial custody have already served an average of 10 years in jail as undertrials. They were convicted for murder, unlawful assembly, rioting, destruction of evidence as well as against the Arms Act. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 21,500 on each of the accused while ruling that the convicts will serve their sentence awarded under various Sections of the IPC concurrently.
The court also ordered to pay a fine of Rs 51,000 compensation to the kin of Ajit and Bharat from the fine deposited by the convicts while ruling that they would have to serve an additional three months of simple imprisonment if they failed to pay the fine.
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