A sessions court in Nashik on Thursday deferred sentencing of the six convicts in the 2013 Sonai honour killing case and will announce the quantum of sentence on January 20. The case had triggered outrage among Dalits. The court had earlier announced that it will pronounce the quantum of sentence on January 18.
Six of the seven accused were convicted on various counts including murder and criminal conspiracy for killing three Dalit youths on January 1, 2013 in Sonai village of Ahmednagar district. The killings, according to First Information Report, were a fallout of inter-caste love affair between one of the deceased and a Maratha girl.
The accused included the father Popat Darandale, elder brother Ganesh Darandale, and other relatives of the girl.
The judge convicted Popat, Ganesh, Prakash Darandale, Ramesh Darandale, Ashok Nawagire and Sandip Kurhe and acquitted Ashok Phalke, against whom the prosecution could not establish the charge of conspiracy.
Police recovered bodies of the three youths, Sandeep Raju Thanwar (26), Sachin Sohanlal Gharu (22) and Rahul Kandare (20) – all from Mehter community, in pieces from a septic tank and a neighbouring dry well. Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said Gharu was in relationship with a girl belonging to an upper caste family. Gharu along with Thanwar and Kandare were working at the Trimurti educational institute in Sonai where the girl was studying.
According to the FIR, Gharu and his colleagues, working as sweepers, were called by Darandale family at their home on January 1 evening to clean their septic tank. The next day, Gharu was found beheaded and hand chopped from the shoulders. The bodies of the other two, Sandeep Thanwar and Rahul Kandare were found a day later nearby with injury marks on their heads.
{{/usCountry}}According to the FIR, Gharu and his colleagues, working as sweepers, were called by Darandale family at their home on January 1 evening to clean their septic tank. The next day, Gharu was found beheaded and hand chopped from the shoulders. The bodies of the other two, Sandeep Thanwar and Rahul Kandare were found a day later nearby with injury marks on their heads.
{{/usCountry}}The family of the girl, which was opposed to the inter-caste affair, hatched a conspiracy and killed the three Dalits, Nikam said.