The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court on Wednesday commuted the death penalty handed down by the fast-track court at Bhandara to six of the eight Khairlanji convicts to life imprisonment. In what is seen as a setback to the prosecution,the Bench of A P Lavande and R C Chavan also held that the caste atrocity charge didnt hold in the absence of evidence. The lower court had also rejected the caste atrocity charge. The Bench also ruled that it wasnt a rarest of rare case and had arisen out of a sense of revenge against the deceased and not out of caste hatred. The judgment was to be delivered on June 15,but was deferred. The judgment was delivered via video-conferencing for the first time in the history of criminal proceedings in the state with Justice Lavande sitting in Nagpur and Justice Chavan,who had left the city on transfer a few months ago,in attendance from Mumbai. A heavy security blanket was thrown all around the court building. The defence had challenged the lower court sentence against the eight persons Vishwanath,Shatrughna,Ramu Dhande,Prabhakar,Jagdish Mandlekar and Sakru Binjewar (all death convicts) and Gopal Binjewar and Shishupal Dhande (life convicts). Dharampal Dhande,Purushottam Titarmare and Mahipal Titarmare were freed by Bhandara Additional ad hoc District and Sessions Judge S S Das. The life sentence for all convicts will be of 25 years without any remission, the Bench said. Four members of a Dalit family from Khairlanji village in Bhandara district Surekha (mother),Priyanka (daughter),Sudhir and Roshan (sons) were murdered by a mob of villagers on September 29,2007,leading to protests across the country. Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange,the head of the family,had escaped to safety sensing the mob mood. Dalits had said caste hatred was behind the murders. The Bhandara court had given its verdict on September 24,2008. Reacting to the judgment,Bhaiyyalal said,It was unexpected. I didnt get justice. The Atrocity Act charge wasnt upheld. All eight should be hanged to death. I want justice. CBI lawyer Ejaz Khan said,We honour the judgment. We will decide the future course of action after reading it fully. Its important that the conviction is maintained. The quantum of punishment is the courts privilege. We have been able to establish the offence. Meanwhile,the Maharashtra government said it would file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the verdict. Speaking in the Legislative Council,Minister for Public Health Suresh Shetty said,We are waiting for a copy of the High Court order and would move the apex court after receiving it.
