Mumbai: In a setback to five men from Ahmednagar, the Bombay High Court on Monday upheld the death sentence awarded to them for killing three men of a community.
Six persons had been accused of the honour killing. A bench of Justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Sandeep Shinde upheld the conviction of five men - Ragunath Darandale, Prakash Darandale, Ramesh Darandale, Ga-nesh Darandale and Sandeep Kurhe.
At the same time, the bench acquitted one accused - Ashok Navgire. According to the prosecution, the five men had killed Sachin Gharu, Sandeep Dnanware and Tilak Kandare.
The prosecution had claimed that Sachin fell in love with a girl from the Darandale family, which was opposing the relationship. The sole reason for their opposition was that Sachin worked as a sweeper and belonged to a lower caste.
After learning of the relationship, the Darandale family hatched a conspiracy to kill Sachin and accordingly called him to clean the septic tank in their house. The victim, Sachin, was accompanied by two other victims and thus they too were killed.
Having dealt with the challenges filed by the convicts against the verdict of a lower court, the bench led by Justice Dharmadhikari concluded that the five men had conspired and committed a cold-blooded murder. The bench also held that the murder case was one of the rarest of rare and thus death was the only punishment.
