<p>The Bombay High Court on Wednesday commuted the death sentence of six convicts in the infamous Khairlanji Dalit killings case to 25 years imprisonment and fixed a similar sentence for two others serving life terms.<br /><br />The convicts had brutally lynched Surekha Bhotmange, a Dalit woman, and her three children — daughter Priyanka and sons Sudhir and Roshan — Khairlanji village in Bhandara district, Maharashtra, on September 29, 2006.<br /><br />The killings were believed to be the result of a land dispute and had provoked violent protests across the state.<br /><br />The district sessions court had awarded death penalty to six convicts for killing the three children while two others were sentenced to life for murdering the woman. The lone survivor was Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange, who was not present at the scene of crime. The Nagpur bench of the high court did not, however, accept that it was a case of caste-based vengeance.</p>
<p>The Bombay High Court on Wednesday commuted the death sentence of six convicts in the infamous Khairlanji Dalit killings case to 25 years imprisonment and fixed a similar sentence for two others serving life terms.<br /><br />The convicts had brutally lynched Surekha Bhotmange, a Dalit woman, and her three children — daughter Priyanka and sons Sudhir and Roshan — Khairlanji village in Bhandara district, Maharashtra, on September 29, 2006.<br /><br />The killings were believed to be the result of a land dispute and had provoked violent protests across the state.<br /><br />The district sessions court had awarded death penalty to six convicts for killing the three children while two others were sentenced to life for murdering the woman. The lone survivor was Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange, who was not present at the scene of crime. The Nagpur bench of the high court did not, however, accept that it was a case of caste-based vengeance.</p>
