MUMBAI, April 19: The Bombay High Court has commuted the death sentence awarded to three Sangli-based Phasse Pardhi youth to life imprisonment on an appeal by the accused against an order of the Sangli district court in a triple murder-cum-dacoity case.While hearing the appeal filed by Babu alias Babusha Vitthal Rathod (22), Gulab alias Gulya Abbas Bhonsale (20) and Kamlakar Abdul Pawar (20), a division bench comprising Justice A A Desai and Justice Vishnu Sahai, however, confirmed the 10-year imprisonment awarded to seven other accused, including three women. The latter are also the wives of Rathod, Bhonsale and Pawar.On the night of June 10, 1995, Balwant Pawar was driving his truck to the Solapur market when he picked up 15 persons at the Kavthe-Mahankal Phata, at Sangola village. The hitch-hikers, belonging to the Lamans Pardhi tribe, perched themselves atop the driver's cabin of the loaded truck while the women and children were accommodated inside.A little later, two wholesale fruit tradersalso climbed aboard the vehicle and squatted atop the driver's cabin.The prosecution had told the Sangli court that the accused stirred up trouble along the way, assaulting the two traders seated among them. One of them, Rajendra Digamber Raichure, was stabbed to death.Sensing trouble, the driver, Balwant Pawar, halted the vehicle but the Pardhis caught hold of him and dragged him to the nearby hilly region, where they killed him. The accused then took charge of the truck and proceeded to the farmhouse of one Ganpati Balu Koli. The Pardhis looted the farmhouse and killed Koli's son, Narayan, the next day.The Sangli trial court held the three accused, Rathod, Bhonsale and Pawar, responsible for the murder of the truck driver and trader. However, Pawar was held solely responsible for the death of Narayan Koli.
