[ZESTCaste] CBI put in the dock for weak prosecution in Khairlanji case

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_cbi-put-in-the-dock-for-weak-prosecution-in-khairlanji-case_1410357

CBI put in the dock for weak prosecution in Khairlanji case
Jaideep Hardikar / DNA

Friday, July 16, 2010 0:36 IST

NAGPUR: Even as Dalit organisations decry the Khairlanji killings case
judgment, the 131-page judgment clearly mentions that the CBI, by not
challenging the acquittal of the accused by the trial court under
section 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman) of the IPC, "made it
difficult" for the high court "to uphold its appeal" against the lower
court's order, finding the caste atrocity charge untenable.

The Nagpur high court bench comprising justice AP Lavande and justice
RC Chavan said the prosecution evidence does not establish that the
accused murdered Surekha and her three children because they belonged
to the scheduled castes. Which is why, the judges said in their order,
they can't uphold the appeal against the lower court's acquittal of
the accused in the crime.

The CBI had filed an appeal petition before the high court when the
capital punishment awarded by the Bhandara trial court to the six
convicts in the case came up for confirmation. The CBI filed an appeal
against the acquittal by the lower court in the offences under the
relevant sections of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes
(Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, and also sought an enhancement
of punishment of the two who were awarded life imprisonment, to death.
But the CBI did not appeal against the acquittal of the convicts under
offences punishable under the aforementioned Section 354, which made
its argument, that the convicts intended to insult the victim, weak.
The trial court had also said in its judgment that the killings were
not an outcome of caste hatred.

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