BENGALURU: Bringing a 14-year legal battle to an end, a Tumakuru court Thursday sentenced 21 people, including two women, to life imprisonment for the murder of a 45-year-old Dalit woman in 2010.
The convicts, all residents of Gopalapura in Tumakur district, were also fined Rs 13,500 each by third additional district sessions court judge A Nagi Reddy. Police had charged 27 people with murder, but six of the suspects died during the trial.
R Honamma alias Dhaba Honnamma, was killed at Gopalapura on June 28, 2010. Her body, bearing 27 wounds, was discovered in a drain, triggering shockwaves in the community.
Honnamma, who had unsuccessfully contested two gram panchayat elections, had been planning to build a temple—a move that reportedly angered several fellow villagers. As part of her plans, she had stored wooden logs outside her home, which were later stolen. When Honnamma filed a police complaint naming some villagers, the simmering tensions erupted into a deadly rivalry.
Public prosecutor BS Jyoti said the situation took a violent turn when a mob of over 25 villagers attacked Honnamma as she was walking home from Huliyar village at night. The group assaulted her with stones and dumped her body in a drain. Witnesses, including her close relatives, had watched the incident in horror, unable to intervene. Two police officers, including a sub-inspector, were later suspended on charges of dereliction of duty.
Jyoti said there were 32 witnesses. "Statements of the eyewitnesses, including two close relatives of Honnamma, helped secure the conviction. Also, some of the villagers who deposed before the court stood their ground firmly," Jyoti said.
The convicts are Ranganath, Manjula, Thimmaraju, Raju (Devaraju), Srinivas, Anadaswamy, Venkataswamy, Venkatesh, Nagaraju, Rajappa, Hanumanthaiya, Gangadhar (Ganganna), Nanjundaiah, Satyappa, Satish, Chandrashekar, Rangaiya, Umesh, Channamma, Manju, and Swamy (Mohan Kumar).
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