Sessions court sentenced life term to five persons in A'bad

Aurangabad, Maharashtra, Sep 26 (UNI) A sessions court here today sentenced five members of a family to life imprisonment for brutally murdering six other members of their family including grand parents, over a property dispute about three years ago at Nidhona village in Phulamri tehsil of this district.

Additional sessions judge K N Tungar has also sentenced one of the accused to five years rigorous imprisonment for purchasing stolen property and among other offences. Two of the accused have been acquitted by the court.

According to the additional public prosecutor J B Navale, the family of ex-serviceman Baburao Gadekar had a dispute with his younger brother Narsinh Gadekar. Both the families had clashed in the past, over the share in property.

On the night of April 5, 2003 Baburao Gadekar's three sons Jitendra, Dinesh and Janardan armed with knives and axes, have hacked to death Narsinh Deoji Gadekar (40), his wife Subhadra and their two sons Rahul (20) and Vijay (12) at their farm, about two km from Nidhona village.

Later, the trio reached the Nidhona village and brutally murdered their grandparents, Deoji Gadekar (65) and Malanbai (60) while they were fast asleep.

Mr Navale further said that the three accompanied by their two friends again went back to the farm and brought the bodies of Narsinh and his family to the village and quietly dumped them along with the bodies of their grand parents, to create confusion for the investigating agency. The trio had also looted valuables from the house of the victims totally valued at Rs 6.30 lakh, in order to ensure the police that it was a fit case of dacoity.

To make sure, the trio later locked the doors of the house from the outside and made their good escape.

The incident came to light the next day, when one of their relatives, turned up to meet the victims from neighbouring village, Naigaon.

The police had solved the murder mystery within four hours and arrested the three brothers, their parents and other three accomplices.

Following the hearing, the judge sentenced five- Baburao (45), his wife Pushpabai (40) and three sons Jitendra (24), Dinesh (22) and Janardan (19) to life imprisonment. Another accused Raju Digambar Perkar has been sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment for buying the stolen property.

Two other accused Kishor Fattessin Pawar and Vijay Lambe, friends of Jitendra, have been acquitted.

The prosecution examined 59 witnesses, of them 48 including eye witnesses, turned hostile. However circumstantial evidence was so strong, that finger print experts opinion proved crucial in the matter, said additional public prosecutor Navale.

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