The Nagpur bench of Mumbai high court on Tuesday adjourned till July 14 the judgment in the infamous Khairlanji case, in which four members of Bhotmange family were done to death by an irate mob of villagers on September 29, 2007.
Justice AP Lavande posted the matter for July 14 shortly after it came up before him this morning, saying the other judge of the bench, justice RC Chavan, was currently posted in Mumbai.
Heavy security was deployed in the high court premises to avert any trouble in view of the judgment in the sensitive case.
Maharashtra had seen riots erupt in the aftermath of the Khairlanji killings in 2007, amid violent protests by the dalit political groups.
The high court bench heard the appeals by both the prosecution and defence on a day-to-day basis earlier this year and closed the matter for the verdict. A trial court in Bhandara had awarded in 2008 death penalty to six of the eight accused, and life imprisonment to two.
The CBI, which was the investigation agency, has moved the court with an appeal to confirm the death penalties and enhance the sentence to the two from lifer to capital punishment, in addition to re-consider charges under the atrocity Act, while the defence is comprehensively challenging the lower court’s verdict.
The lower court had found the eight accused guilty of killing Surekha Bhotmange and her three children, Priyanka, Roshan and Sudhir. The lone survivor of the family, Surekha’s husband Bhaiyyalal lives in Bhandara and works in a government boys hostel.
