Bhayyalal Bhotmange (File Pic)
Nagpur: The lone survivor of sensational Khairlanji massacre case of 2006, Bhayyalal Bhotmange died of cardiac arrest in Shrikrishna Hrudayalay and Heart Care Hospital, Dhantoli, here on Friday.
The Khairlanji massacre refers to the 2006 murders of Dalits by members of Kunbi Maratha community. The killings took place in the small village located in the Bhandara district. On 29 September 2006, four members of the Bhotmange family belonging to a Dalit caste were murdered in Khairlanji. The women members of the family, Surekha and Priyanka, were paraded naked in public before being murdered. Enraged by a police complaint lodged previous day by Surekha over some land dispute, the accused dragged out Surekha Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange and two of her sons and daughter, paraded naked in the village, sexually abused and hacked to death.
Initial reports suggested that the women were gang-raped before being murdered. Though CBI investigations concluded that the women were not raped, there were allegations of bribery of doctors who performed the post-mortem, and of corruption. In December 2006, CBI filed a chargesheet against 11 persons under charges of murder, criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly with deadly weapons and outraging the modesty of women. In September 2008, six people were given the death sentence for the crime. However, on July 14, 2010, the Nagpur Bench of the High Court commuted the death penalty awarded to the six convicted to a 25-year rigorous imprisonment jail sentence.
