MUMBAI: A day after a trial court at Ahmednagar in Maharashtra acquitted all nine accused in the murder of 17-year-old Dalit boy Nitin Aage, his parents demanded re-trial of the case.
“If all accused have been declared not guilty, then who killed Nitin? Who are the real culprits? We were assured several things by the government. We shall strive to seek justice for our boy, no matter what,” said Rekha and Raju Aage, while speaking to the media on Saturday.
“All the witnesses were coerced to change their statements in the court. The government didn’t do anything to stop that. They didn’t keep any of the promises made to us like conducting the trial in a fast track court or giving a job to one of the kin. We demand a re-trial in the case,” Raju Aage said.
Nitin, a class X student, was killed on April 28, 2014 at Kharda village of Jamkhed taluka of Ahmednagar district over a suspected affair with an upper caste Maratha girl.
He was pulled out of his class, and beaten up brutally by the girl’s relatives. The peons and teachers at the school, who were the prime witnesses, said in their statements before police that the accused had forcibly pulled him out of the class and took him away on a bike. But, in the court they said they hardly knew Nitin Aage.
Public prosecutor Ramdas Gavli, said that though there is a provision to prosecute hostile witnesses, it will need cooperation from the police. “We shall seek justice from the higher court,” he said.
Meanwhile, union minister of state for social justice Ramdas Athawale has said that he would take all possible measures to ensure justice to Nitin Aage’s family.
“The immediate step would be to move to the High Court. We shall do that and simultaneously thinks of other ways to seek justice,” said Athawale.