New Delhi: The hearing of the rape and brutal murders of four members of a Dalit family in Khaiarlanji has begun in a Maharashtra fast track court on Monday.
On September 29, Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange's family - wife Surekha, daughter Priyanka, and sons Roshan and Sudhir - was brutallly killled in Khairlanji village.
His wife and and his 17-year-old daughter Priyanka were raped in the most savage manner by men belonging to the OBC caste. The murders of four members of the Bhotmange family went unnoticed for over a month.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has chargesheeted 47 people in the case reportedly on charges of murder, criminal conspiracy, and unlawful assembly with deadly weapons.
as the news about the rapes and the killings trickled down, the simmering anger among the Dalits came to the fore.
In the first week of November, Nagpur erupted. In the line of fire was the Maharashtra police for failing to investigate the murders and controlling the swelling Dalit mobs. The police resorted to fire aggravating the situation further.
The next flashpoint was Amravati, where the protesting mobs were bigger and more violent. The clashes left scores of policemen and protestors injured and one Dalit youth dead.
On November 8, 100 Dalit women activists stormed the Chief Minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh's office demanding a CBI inquiry into the incident.
The government of Mahasahtra finally woke up but only to blame the Naxal groups for the violence. The government was still clueless about the ground situation which was turning volatile.
On November 11, the government relented and Chief Minister announced the CBI probe into the Khairlanji killings. But there was no let up in the protests.
In the third week of November, the protests hit the western Maharashtra city of Sholapur. By now, the caste politics was at display and other state parties were also joining in to make the most of what were in the beginning spontaneous protests.
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