Low-caste family killers get reprieve
MUMBAI:
An Indian court on Wednesday commuted death sentences handed down to six people for the grisly murders of a low-caste Hindu family, a case that sparked violent protests.
The Mumbai High Court reduced the sentences to life terms of 25 years.
The six were among a group who attacked and killed the family – a woman, her daughter and two sons – over a land dispute in a village near the city of Nagpur, 900 kilometres from Mumbai, in 2006. The two sons were mutilated and the women repeatedly raped before their bodies were dumped in a canal.
The family was Dalit – or “untouchable” as they used to be known – who occupy the lowest rung in India’s rigid caste hierarchy.
The case sparked anger and violent protests because of the glacial pace in prosecuting and convicting those responsible. Dalit activists have long argued that discrimination against members of their community, which numbers around 165 million, means they have no proper recourse to justice.
Most Dalits live in poverty in rural areas and do menial, supposedly “unclean,” jobs like collecting garbage and cleaning latrines.
Death sentences are often commuted to life terms in India, which has not carried out an execution since 2004 and only two since 1998.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2010.
An Indian court on Wednesday commuted death sentences handed down to six people for the grisly murders of a low-caste Hindu family, a case that sparked violent protests.
The Mumbai High Court reduced the sentences to life terms of 25 years.
The six were among a group who attacked and killed the family – a woman, her daughter and two sons – over a land dispute in a village near the city of Nagpur, 900 kilometres from Mumbai, in 2006. The two sons were mutilated and the women repeatedly raped before their bodies were dumped in a canal.
The family was Dalit – or “untouchable” as they used to be known – who occupy the lowest rung in India’s rigid caste hierarchy.
The case sparked anger and violent protests because of the glacial pace in prosecuting and convicting those responsible. Dalit activists have long argued that discrimination against members of their community, which numbers around 165 million, means they have no proper recourse to justice.
Most Dalits live in poverty in rural areas and do menial, supposedly “unclean,” jobs like collecting garbage and cleaning latrines.
Death sentences are often commuted to life terms in India, which has not carried out an execution since 2004 and only two since 1998.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2010.