12 get death for 2008 Chennai-Kolkata highway killings

VIJAYAWADA: In a rare instance of capital punishment being handed to as many people at once, a sessions court in Andhra Pradesh’s Ongole on Monday sentenced to death 12 men — gangster Md Abdul Samad, alias Munna Bhai, and 11 of his accomplices — in three cases of dacoity leading to the murder of six people on the Chennai-Kolkata highway in 2008. Four other convicted members of the gang got prison terms of 10 years each while two were sentenced to seven years' imprisonment.
Overall, 11 murder cases had been filed against the gang, four of which were dismissed due to lack of evidence. Three other cases are still in different stages of trial. All the victims were truck drivers and cleaners. They were stopped, robbed and killed by the gang, whose members used to dress as cops. The trucks and loads would be later sold to scrap merchants.