Bhandara (Maharashtra), Sept. 24: Six persons convicted of lynching four members of a Dalit family were sentenced to death today. Two others got life terms.

The sentences follow the September 15 convictions for the killings two years ago in Khairlanji village of Vidarbha’s Bhandara district. The murders had sparked a Dalit backlash that forced the case to be handed over to the CBI.

Fears of an agitation had surfaced after last week’s convictions, too, as the eight were held guilty of murder, but not caste crime, because of scanty CBI evidence that also ruled out rape. Three of the 11 charged had been let off.

This is the highest number of death sentences in a single case in Maharashtra after the 12 in the 1993 serial blasts case.

In Khairlanji, a mob of 50 had lynched Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange’s wife Surekha, daughter Priyanka and sons Dilip and Roshan on September 29, 2006. Bhaiyyalal fled.

The provocation for the killings was Surekha’s and Priyanka’s police testimony against some villagers in connection with a land dispute that had led to an assault on a relative. Their bodies were mutilated and dumped in a canal. The women were allegedly raped, too.

The death penalty has been given to Vishwanath Mandlekar, Prabhakar Mandlekar, Sakru Birjewar, Shatrughan Dhande, Ramu Dhande and Jagdish Mandlekar. Gopal Birjewar and Shishupal Dande have got life terms.

Bhotmange appeared satisfied. “It is good that six persons have been given death. It would have been better if all eight convicted were sentenced to death,” he said.

He said he wanted the prosecution to move Bombay High Court seeking death for the two who got life imprisonment and a harsh punishment for the three acquitted.

Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said the court accepted the killings were “one of rarest of rare cases”, which deserved capital punishment. “It is for the CBI to decide whether it will move Bombay High Court seeking maximum punishment for the two sentenced to life.”