BHOPAL: A court in Shajapur district of Madhya Pradesh awarded life imprisonment to 35 accused, including a woman, after convicting them for murders of four members of a family over a land dispute in 2012.
But it was perhaps the first case in the country, in which a court sentenced to life so many convicts in each of the four murder cases.
A sessions court in the Shujalpur town of Shajapur district, held the 35 accused guilty for murdering four members of a family, including Azad, Rahmat, Mehboob and Buddhe Khan in Kherkhedi area on November 11, 2012.
"We requested the court to award death penalty to the convicts, but with the convicts being larger in numbers, the sessions judge Rajiv Karmhe awarded life sentence to them in all four cases. The judge sentenced every convict to life in prison in each of the four murder cases. The punishment in each murder case will go on simultaneously," said the prosecution counsel.
The prosecution had submitted charge sheets against a total of 38 accused in the four murder cases. While one the remaining three accused died in jail, another accused is absconding till date, while the last accused being a minor was under trial before juvenile court.