VERDICT IN RAPE-MURDER OF MINOR THAT ROCKED MAHARASHTRA Three held guilty; parents of victim seek death for convicts

HIGH-PROFILE TRIAL! Quantum of punishment for the three accused to be decided on Nov 21

All three accused in the sensational rape and murder of a minor schoolgirl in Kopardi in July 2016, were found guilty by a special court in Ahmednagar on Saturday.

After the court held the three men guilty in the case, the victim’s parents have sought death for the convicts. “We waited for a long time and on Saturday the court held all three men guilty. To send a stern message in the society, the convicts should be awarded death punishment so that no one will dare to commit such an act in the future,” the victim’s mother said. She also said they were thankful to the Maratha community, who took out marches, special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, police and government for supporting them.

The victim’s father, too, sought death for the convicts. “Entire Maratha community feels that the convicts should get nothing but the death sentence,” he said.

Vijayalaxmi Khopade, the lawyer for one of the accused, said that the verdict was delivered by Ahmednagar District and Sessions Judge Suvarna Keole under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act. Another lawyer, Prakash Aher, told IANS that the quantum of punishment for the convicts will be argued and decided on Tuesday, November 21, by the same court.

The Kopardi gang-rape case took place on July 13, 2016, when a 15-yearold schoolgirl was brutally gangraped, mutilated and killed, sparking off a major casteist and political furore in Maharashtra. The incident had triggered widespread protests from the Maratha community with marches being held across the state.

The Class 9 student was out to fetch some spices from her grandmother's home in the same village. When the crime came to light late that night, it sparked off widespread condemnation and protests across the state with different political parties and Maratha groups demanding capital punishment for the accused.

The police nabbed the three prime accused – Jitendra alias Pappu Babulal Shinde (26), Santosh Gorkha Bhawal (30) and Nitin Gopinath Bhailume (28) – who have been found guilty by the court under various charges including rape, conspiracy, murder and other charges, Nikam told the media shortly after the verdict.

The high profile case trial started before the fast-track Special Court on December 20, 2016. In the past 11 months, the prosecution examined 31 witnesses while defence lawyer

Vijayalaxmi Khopade examined one witness in the case.

The prosecution said that the prime accused – Shinde, allegedly raped and murdered the victim, while the other two accused, Bhawal and Bhailume “conspired” with him in committing the heinous crime.

Though the investigators had previously hyped the crime as “gang rape”, Nikam later submitted 24 pieces of evidences to deduce that Shinde had raped and smothered the girl to death. Bhawal and Bhailume were not present physically at the scene of the crime, but helped and conspired with him in committing the gruesome crime.