The brutal murder of four members of a dalit family in Khairlanji village, in 2006, was initially treated as the gory fallout of a village feud. It was later revealed that the ghastly killings were a caste atrocity committed by upper caste Hindus against a dalit family

Eight of the 11 people accused of killing four members of a dalit family in Khairlanji village, in Maharashtra’s Bhandara district, in 2006, have been held guilty by a district and sessions court.

The court deferred the pronouncement of sentence and will resume hearing the case on September 20.

On September 15, 2008, ad hoc district and sessions court judge S S Cass held Gopal Binjewar, Sakru Binjewar, Shatrughan Dhande, Vishwanath Dhande, Ramu Dhande, Jagdish Mandlekar, Prabhakar Mandlekar and Shishpal Dhande guilty under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Three other accused -- Mahipal Dhande, Dharampal Dhande and Purushottam Titarmare -- were acquitted as the court could find no evidence against them under the Prevention of Atrocities on Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Act 1989.

In one of the worst caste atrocities to be committed in Independent India, four members of a dalit family -- Surekha Bhaiyalal Bhotmange, her daughter Priyanka and sons Sudhir and Roshan -- were lynched to death by a mob of around 50, on September 29, 2006, over a land dispute in Khairlanji village. Their mutilated bodies were then thrown into a canal in the village.

Surekha’s husband and only surviving member of the family, Bhaiyalal, managed to escape.

The brutal killings, initially treated as the gory fallout of a village feud but later seen as a blatant case of atrocity against a dalit family by upper caste Hindus, led to widespread public outcry and invited nationwide media attention.

The immediate provocation for the savage mob attack was said to be evidence given by Surekha and Priyanka against 15 villagers after a close relative, Siddharth Gajbhiye, was beaten up.

When the case snowballed into a political issue, the state government transferred the investigations from the local police to the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and then to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Following violent protests in many parts of the state, the government also suspended four police officers and three medical officers for dereliction of duty; Bhaiyalal was offered Rs 1.2 million as compensation, a house, and employment.

The CBI, after completing its investigations, filed a chargesheet against 11 of 46 accused on December 27, 2006, but had difficulty getting clinching evidence as there were virtually no witnesses to the killings, apart from Bhaiyalal who, after slipping out of the house watched the assault from behind a wall. He later fled to a neighbouring village.

For Bhaiyalal Bhotmange, a dalit farmer, it has been a long wait for justice. He has maintained throughout that the entire village is responsible for the killings and should be held responsible. “The whole village is to blame. If it was not, then someone or the other would have come forward and said, leave them. But no one did and so the whole village is to blame.”

Source: PTI, September 15, 2008
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