The High Court on Thursday ordered the release of six people alleged to be a part of the dreaded Dandupalya gang, sentenced to death by a lower court.
Hanuma alias Dodda Hanuma, the main accused in the murder of a city woman, is among those who will walk free if he has no other cases pending against him.
A division bench comprising Justice K Bhakthavatsala and Justice K N Keshavanarayana allowed an appeal by Dodda Hanuma, Venkatesh, Munikrishna, Nallathimma, Lakshmamma (wife of Dodda Hanuma) and Krishnudu, challenging a special court judgment.Eleven people, including the six appellants, had been charged with dacoity and murder.
Jayalakshmi, a resident of Vittalnagar in Chamarajpet, was murdered on October 30, 2000. News reports said a gang had gone to her house on the pretext of begging, strangled her with a nylon rope and escaped with her gold jewellery.
The police had claimed they had found the gang in possession of jewellery belonging to the murdered woman.
The Bangalore city and district police had registered nearly 100 cases of murder, dacoity and robbery against the Dandupalya gang for crimes spanning four years (1996 to 2000).
The crimes were reported in Bangalore, Hubli, Mangalore, Mysore and Tumkur. The accused were arrested between 1999 and 2000.
The special court, awarding death, had observed that the crimes were so brutal that they were fit to be considered ‘rarest of rare cases.’
It had ruled that circumstantial evidence had proved beyond doubt that the accused had raped and killed several women and taken away their valuables. The appellants had said the special court verdict was influenced by media reports.
The High Court bench observed that because the murders were similar, it can’t be concluded they were committed by the same gang.
Circumstantial evidence did not prove the involvement of the appellants, the court said, quashing the death sentence awarded by the special court.
The accused have already spent 13 years in jail. If they face no other trial, they should be released immediately, the judges said.
‘Thirsty for Blood’
The police had reconstructed the murders this way: Lakshmamma, wife of Dodda Hanuma, knocks on a door and asks for water to drink.
The gang barges in when the woman of the house goes inside the kitchen to fetch water. The men then slit her throat and escape with gold, jewellery and other valuables. The police and the prosecution have not been able to provide enough evidence to convince the High Court that those in jail had committed the crimes.