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A Maharashtra fast track court on 15 January 2007 began hearing in the case of the killings of the four members of a Dalit family in Khairlanji that had evoked widespread protests.The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has charge-sheeted 47 people in the case reportedly on charges of murder, criminal conspiracy, and unlawful assembly with deadly weapons. The killings of four members of a Dalit family at Khairlanji village in Bhandara district of Vidarbha had sparked a series of protests and strikes in the State. Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange's wife and three children were killed allegedly by the upper caste people on 29 September 2006 after he reportedly refused allowing them to build a road through his fields. The villagers had allegedly stripped Surekha Bhotmange (44) and her daughter Priyanka, and paraded them naked to village choupal and then gang-raped them. The two were then brutally killed. The villagers had also stabbed to death Surekha's two sons - one of them blind - the same time, near the village canal. However Surekha's husband Bhaiyyalal was able to survive since he was not at home at that time. Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had announced an ex gratia payment of Rs 6 lakh to the next of kin of the victims' family, and housing and job to the affected family members. Deshmukh had also assured that the Government would give an additional Rs 2 lakh to them from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund. (Source: DailyIndia)
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