Khairlanji killings: SC issues notice to convicts

The Supreme Court, on Friday, issued notices to eight persons, serving 25 years jail term each for killing a Dalit woman and her three children at Khairlanji. A bench of justices VS Sirpurkar and TS Thakur issued notices to convicts on the CBI plea, which also sought restoration of the trial court
ruling awarding death penalty to six out of eight of them.

Appearing for CBI, additional solicitor general Haren Rawal told the court that all the eight persons also needed to be convicted under various stringent provisions of Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

CBI has moved the SC challenging the July 14 ruling of the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court, which commuted the death sentence of six convicts to 25 years imprisonment and fixed a similar sentence for two others serving life term.

The case pertained to the brutal murder of four members of a Dalit family by a mob on September 29, 2006.