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Judgment On September 24, a Bhandara court in Maharashtra pronounced the judgment in the famous case of Kairlanji massacre in which four members of a Dalit (schedule caste) family were brutally murdered by a mob. Court sentenced the six out of total of 11 accused persons to death while two have been sent to life imprisonment. And the remaining three accused has been acquitted by the court for lack of evidence.

Incident In September 2006, A Dalit woman Surekha Bhotmange, her daughter Priyanka had identified the assailants to the police whom they had seen assaulting a police-patil. Police had arrested the accused on September 29 and had released them on bail on the same day. They in the evening had attacked the house of the Dalit family and killed four members of the family brutally. The mother and the daughter were dragged out of the house by the mob, stripped and were beaten up with wooden sticks and bicycle chains. There heads were banged repeatedly against a wall till they died. The violent mod did not end here, they killed two more male members of the family Sudhir (18) and Roshan (21). Because of the slow and biased investigation process by the state police department, Dalit agitation had broke out and had taken a violent turn. Violence had expanded in the whole state and a train was set on fire. After it, state government had handed over the inquiry to a special CBI team and the some police officers had been suspended. This issue remained in headlines for many days and many national leaders had expressed their view against the shocking crime.

Discrimination In this case, a Dalit family had to face the ire of some people of upper caste. The way they were brutally murdered show the attitude of the upper class people towards the lower class. In most parts of India, Dalits and other low caste people face discrimination and are mostly treated like bonded laborers. In the Bihar foods we have seen that even in the relief camps Dalits are being discriminated. This kind of discrimination has given rise to many social problems. In some state Dalits have converted to Christian religion. But it divided the society more as we have seen in the state of Orissa. But with this court verdict, people’s trust in the judiciary has been re-established and also a message has been sent to the upper classes that they will have to change their centuries old attitude towards the lowers sections of the society.