Ujjwal Nikam submitted that the three victims were called by the accused on some pretext and murdered. While Thanvar’s body was dumped in a septic tank, the bodies of the other two were cut into pieces and dumped in a borewell.
SIX MEN, including four of a girl’s family, arrested for the murder of three Dalit men over an inter-caste relationship in Sonai in Ahmednagar district in 2013, were convicted by a special court in Nashik on Monday. The court convicted the men on charges including murder, destruction of evidence and criminal conspiracy and under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The court acquitted one person, Ashok Phalake, for lack of evidence. Special Judge R R Vaishnav will hear arguments on the quantum of punishment for the accused on January 18.
According to the prosecution led by special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, 22-year-old Sachin Gharu, belonging to the Mehtar (Valmiki) community, was working at the Trimurti Pavan Foundation in Nevasa taluka in Ahmednagar district. The other two victims, Sandeep Thanvar (26) and Rahul Kandare (20), were also employees of the institute. The 19-year-old daughter of the main accused, Popat Darandale, was studying at the institute. Nikam had submitted before the court that the girl and Gharu had fallen in love. The girl’s family was against the relationship as they belonged to a different caste in the Maratha community.
Nikam submitted that the three victims were called by the accused on some pretext and murdered. While Thanvar’s body was dumped in a septic tank, the bodies of the other two were cut into pieces and dumped in a borewell. The accused had themselves approached the police first claiming that Thanvar had drowned while cleaning the tank. Upon suspicion, the police investigated and found the bodies of the other two victims.
“We examined 53 witnesses, including the family members of the victims. As there were no eyewitnesses, we also submitted 22 circumstances connecting the accused to the crime,” Nikam said. He added that while the prosecution also examined the girl, she was declared hostile after she denied being in a relationship. “In her subsequent cross-examination, facts like how she had stopped going to the institute from the day after the incident were brought on record to show the conduct to be suspicious,” Nikam said.
The accused persons also led the investigators to the weapon, a sugarcane cutter, that was also part of the evidence, he said. Pankaj, the 27-year-old younger brother of Thanvar, said they want the accused to be sentenced to death. “The crime deserves nothing less than the maximum penalty. It has taken a lot from our families to keep at it, despite threats of the accused,” said Pankaj.
Serving as a soldier in the Army, Pankaj had filed a plea before the court in 2015 seeking transfer of the case from Ahmednagar to another district. “There were many attempts to threaten us to settle the case. If such a thing can happen to someone serving in the Army, other victims must be finding it difficult to deal with threats. Sachin’s mother had to leave the state and relocate in Madhya Pradesh after the trial began. It was only due to the case being transferred to another district that the accused could not wield their influence,” Pankaj said.