The Ahmednagar district sessions court has annouced sentence to death to all three convicts in the Kopardi rape and murder case on Wednesday. The court had on November 18, theld main acused Jitendra Babubal Shinde alias Pappu (21) and co-accused Santosh Gorakh Bhaval (29) and Nitin Bhailume (28) guilty in the case.
The incident took place on July 13, 2016, when a 15-year-old school girl belonging to Maratha community was brutually gang-raped, mutiliated and killed. This sparkled a major casteist and political furore in Maharashtra. The girl was out to fetch some spices from her grandmother’s home in the same village. When the crime came to light late, it sparked off widespread condemnation and protests across the state with Maratha groups demanding capital punishment for the accused.
Massive protest by the Maratha community had errupted across Maharashtra after the incident, demanding capital punishment for all three.
