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Khairlanji: CBI asked to move Supreme Court

Staff Reporter

Mumbai: Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil told reporters here on Saturday that the State government had asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to appeal in the Supreme Court in the Khairlanji massacre case. On Wednesday, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court commuted the death sentence of the six accused to life imprisonment. By calling the killings an act of revenge, the High Court also upheld the earlier order of a trial court (September 15, 2008), which had not applied the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act to the case.

Mr. Patil said: “We had a meeting of Home department officials and advocates from the CBI today [on Saturday]. Everybody was in favour of appealing in the Supreme Court for the strictest punishment. Several organisations have also been demanding the same. In light of people's sentiments we took this decision.”

The Minister said the State viewed the Khairlanji massacre as a caste atrocity and that it was the rarest of rare cases. “It was not murder or revenge. One of the sons [of survivor Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange] was disabled, yet he was killed in a barbaric fashion,” Mr. Patil said.

Various Ambedkarite organisations have been agitating against the order of the High Court. On Saturday, representatives of Prakash Ambedkar-led Bharatiya Bahujan Mahasangh and those of the Republican Party of India staged a protest at Mumbai's Azad Maidan, criticising Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and Mr. Patil. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Bala Nandgaonkar was present. The protest came a day after representatives from the Khairlanji Action Committee and others agitated in Nagpur on Friday.

Many Ambedkarite voices, particularly the Action Committee, have raised concern over the handling of the Khairlanji case by advocate Ujjwal Nikam. Mr. Nikam was the Special Public Prosecutor in the case at the trial court. When asked, Mr. Patil said it would be inappropriate to speak on the merits of the case. “Don't ask me about the merits. I can only speak for the people and the State. If there were loopholes how did the court give life term?”

Speaking to The Hindu on the phone, CBI prosecutor Ejaz Khan said: “We feel we have material to agitate before the Supreme Court on the point of sufficiency of sentence. We want the highest punishment.”

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