MUMBAI: Nearly a decade after the rape and murder of a 15-year-old schoolgirl in Kopardi village in Ahmednagar district, now Ahilyanagar, a case that sparked widespread outrage and became the catalyst for the Maratha protests in 2016, the Bombay High Court has decided to inspect the crime spot before determining whether to confirm the death penalty imposed on two labourers convicted in the case.
The court was hearing appeals filed by the two surviving convicts challenging their convictions and death sentences, along with the reference made by the trial court for confirmation of the death penalty. The court noted that, given the circumstances surrounding the spot, it was necessary to have a clear understanding of the location of the incident and the positions of certain witnesses whose evidence had been relied upon by the trial court in forming the chain of circumstances that led to the convictions. The incident subsequently became the catalyst for the Maratha protests that continued for months across Maharashtra. The victim belonged to the Maratha community, while the accused were Dalit and worked as labourers in the same village. The first protest by the Maratha Kranti Morcha was held days after the incident, with lakhs of Marathas taking part in marches across Ahilyanagar, Beed, Parbhani, Dharashiv and Jalgaon districts. they soon expanded to encompass several other demands, most prominently reservation for the Maratha community in government jobs and educational institutions Although the protests were initially sparked by the rape and murder.
A division bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Ashish S Chavan on Tuesday invoked Section 310 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which empowers a judge or magistrate to conduct a local inspection of a crime scene or other relevant location. In November 2017, the Ahilyanagar sessions court convicted the three labourers and sentenced them to death.
The bench fixed October 12 for visiting the spot, saying the exercise was necessary to gain a “fair insight into the spot of the incident as well as the surrounding peripheral circumstances, which have emerged before the trial court”.
The victim’s body bore signs of brutal assault. Her limbs had been broken, her hair had been pulled out and bite marks were found across her body.
