2013 Sonai murders: SC stays execution of convict's death sentence

The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the execution of the death penalty of a convict who was convicted of murdering three Dalit youths in Ahmednagar's Sonai village in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar in 2013 over an inter-caste love affair.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the execution of the death penalty of a convict who was convicted of murdering three Dalit youths in Ahmednagar's Sonai village in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar in 2013 over an inter-caste love affair. The murder occurred on January 1, 2013 in Sonai village of Nevasa tehsil of Ahmednagar.

A Bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud stayed the execution of the death penalty while admitting the appeal filed by convict Sandip Madhav Kurhe for hearing and tagged the appeal along with other pending appeals of other convicts. The Bombay High Court on December 2, 2019 had confirmed the death sentence to four of five people for murdering three Dalit men. The court, however, acquitted one convict, Ashok Navgire, for lack of evidence against him.

The Sessions court in Nashik had in January 2018 awarded the death sentence in the case to six people -- Raghunath Darandale, Ramesh Darandale, Prakash Darandale, Ganesh alias Pravin Darandale, Ashok Navgire and Sandip Madhav Kurhe. They were convicted on various charges, including murder and criminal conspiracy. All six had moved the High Court challenging their conviction and the capital punishment awarded by the Nashik court, and during the pendency of the case one of the convicts, Raghunath Darandale, died. The High Court had confirmed the death penalty awarded to four of the convicts -- Ramesh Darandale, Prakash Darandale, Ganesh and Sandip Madhav Kurhe.

Three Dalit youths, Sachin Gharu (24), Sandeep Thanvar (25) and Rahul Kandare (20), were brutally murdered and their mutilated body parts were scattered in a septic tank and a dried-up well. As per police, the killings were prompted by an inter-caste love affair between Gharu and a girl from the Maratha community to which the convicts belong to.

According to the FIR lodged at Sonai police station, Sachin and his colleagues, who worked as sweepers, were summoned by the Darandale family to their home on the fateful evening of January 1, 2013 to clean their septic tank and were hacked to death. (ANI)

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