Trial in triple murder case begins

NASHIK: While the Ahmednagar police are still struggling to find leads into the recent triple murder of a Dalit family in the Javkhede village in the district, the hearing of the murder case of three Dalit men in Sonai in Ahmednagar in 2013 got underway in a Nashik court from Tuesday.
After the cross-examination of two witnesses in the case on Tuesday, the court of additional district and sessions judge V A Daulatabadkar ordained the next hearing for November 25.On January 1, 2013, three Dalit men were killed at Sonai in Nevasa tehesil of Ahmednagar.
Defence lawyer Avinash Bhide said that two witnesses in the case, Ganesh Belhekar, a photographer and Nilkanth Bargage, a city survey officer, were cross-examined by the defence lawyers. The next hearing will take place on November 25. Ujwal Nikam is the special public prosecutor in the case.
On January 1, 2013, Sandeep Raju Thanwar, Sachin Sohanlal Gharu and Tilak Raju Kandare were found killed in Sonai village. While Thanwar's body was found in the safety tank of Darandale village in Sonai, the bodies of the other two were found badly hacked with sharp weapons. The seven persons who have been arrested in the case are Popat Vishwanath Darandale, Ramesh Vishwanath Darandale, Prakash Vishwanath Darandale, Ganesh Popat Darandale, Sandeep Kurhe, Ashok Phalake and Ashok Sudhakar Navgire.
Thanwar's brother Pankaj Thanwar, who is a jawan in the Indian Army, said that taking into account the influence the accused may wield if the hearing was held in Ahmednagar and the security to the witnesses , they had requested the court to conduct the hearing in Nashik.
According to reports, Sachin Gharu, a resident of Ganeshwadi, Ahmednagar, who worked as a sanitary worker in Trimurti Shaikshanik Sankul at Newas Phata, was in a relationship with Seema Popat Darandale, a B.Ed student in the same institution.
The Darandale family got a hint of the relationship, and the seven accused had conspired to kill Gharu. Seema is the daughter of accused Popat Vishwanath Darandale.
Subsequently, they had allegedly called Sachin Gharu, Sandeep Thanawar and Tilak Kandare to their village on January 1, 2013 under the pretext of cleaning the safety tank and murdered them.