E-Paper
2015 triple murder: Sangli court sentences two accused to life in prison
The court also imposed a fine of Rs one lakh on each of the convicts; a 12-year-old, who hid during the attack, was the sole eyewitness in the case
A local court in Sangli, on Tuesday, awarded life sentence to two accused for the murders of three women of a family in Sangli district in 2015.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs one lakh on each of the convicts.
Additional Sessions Judge D P Satvalekar awarded the sentences, life imprisonment till death, to Sudhir Sadashiv Ghorpade and Ravindra Ramchandra Kadam, in a courtroom packed with observers, and relatives of the victims and the accused.
A 12-year-old, who hid during the attack, was the sole eyewitness in the case. “It made all the difference and the verdict is significant,” said special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, “The boy’s deposition turned out to be crucial during. We examined as many as 21 witnesses, but on the version of events testified to by the 12-year-old eyewitness, and circumstantial evidence gathered, we garnerd a conviction.”
The three women murdered were related to Sudhir Ghorpade’s sister, Vidyarani’s husband, Balwant Shinde.
According to the prosecution, Ghorpade and Kadam killed the women at Hivre village in Khanapur taluka of Sangli in June 2015.
Vidyarani, who was married to Balwant Shinde, ended her life by consuming poison in 2009 due to domestic disputes, after which, her family lodged a case of abetment to suicide, against her in-laws.
The court acquitted the in-laws of all charges, which angered her brother Ghorpade, the prosecution had argued.
On June 21, 2015, Ghorpade, Kadam and a minor went to the house of Balwant Shinde’s uncle and hacked to death three women, identified as Prabhavati Shinde, Nishigandha Shinde and Sunita Shinde.
Ghorpade was angry with the family of the three women for helping Vidyarani’s in-laws during the hearing of the suicide abetment case, the policem stated in submissions before the court.
Anatomy of a revenge killing
Six years after the death of his sister Vidyarani, for which he blamed his sister’s huband’s family, the Shindes, Sudheer Ghorpade carried out the murders
- On June 21, 2015, Ghorpade, along with Ravindra Kadam and a juvenile went to Shindevasti on the prextext of assessing land.
- The male members of the Shinde family were not at home
- Three females, Prabhavati Shinde, Nishigandha Shinde and Sunita Shinde, were present.
- Ghorpade requested Prabhavati for a glass of water, for which she went inside the house.
- The accused trio attacked and killed Nishigandha Shinde and Sunita Patil inside the house
- When Prabhavati came rushing out to see what was happening, she too was hacked to death.
- The trio fled, only to be arrested soon after.
