Sonai killings: Death for all 6 guilty of killing 3 Dalit youth

The Nashik Sessions court on Saturday awarded capital punishment to all the six accused found guilty in the Sonai killings case. The court held that the act committed by the accused was rarest of rare and deserved nothing but a death sentence.

The court, presided over by Judge Vaishav, further said that there was a need to put an end to such mentality, which is spreading through society like a life-threatening disease, and hopefully, this judgement will curb its growth.

Last week, the court found the six accused — brothers Ramesh (43), Prakash (38), and Ragunath alias 'Popat' (52); Ganesh alias Praveen Darandale (23), Sandeep Kurhe (37) and Ashok Phalke (44) — guilty of one of the most brutal hate crimes in recent years.

The gory murders of three Dalit youths in Ahmednagar's Sonai village took place more than five years ago.

Sachin Gharu (24), Sandeep Thanvar (25) and Rahul Kandare (20) were brutally murdered and their mutilated body parts scattered in a septic tank and a dried-up well. The motive was anger that Sachin, a Dalit youth, was pursuing a relationship with an upper caste Maratha woman, related to the Darandales. Sandeep and Rahul had witnessed the covering up of the crime.

Pankaj Thanvar, Sandeep's brother, says he is happy that justice has been delivered and that the judiciary was not shaken by the economic or the caste background of the accused. Pankaj is a soldier in the Indian Army.

It was a proud moment for the prosecution as it based its argument on circumstantial evidence of Call Data Records (CDR) and 'last seen together' theory. Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said, "The anger over a schedule caste man loving an upper caste woman was so much that the accused, even after Gharu's death, cut his body into eight pieces and threw the pieces into a borewell. To eliminate evidence, they killed the two youths who saw the gruesome killing and threw their bodies into the sewage tank too. The case was a rarest-of-rare example of hate and caste crime, as the court observed."

Sudharak Olve, photo-journalist and Padmashree award winner, who is documenting caste atrocities across Maharashtra, said, "The primary responsibility of being sensitive to caste atrocities lies with the police machinery. When that fails to secure the rights of Dalits or any other reserved caste person, the feudal caste hierarchy takes things for granted and such cases occur."

Activist Vaibhav Chaya says, "The police buckles under pressure from authorities and politicians, who belong to the upper caste. Atrocities can only stop if police conduct a fair investigation."