Dalit youth's killing: Maharashtra court acquits all 9 accused

AHMEDNAGAR: A trial court at Ahmednagar in Maharashtra has acquitted all nine accused in the Dalit youth Nitin Aage murder case.

The murder, which took place in April 2014, had rocked the state due to its honour killing and caste conflict angle as well as the brutality involved.

District and Sessions Court Judge Vivek Hood on Thursday acquitted all the accused in the case, as most of the prosecution witnesses turned hostile.

Aage (17), a class-12th student and resident of Kharda village in Jamkhed tehsil in the district, was killed on April 28, 2014, allegedly because he was suspected to have an affair with an upper-caste Maratha girl.

His father had named 13 people including three minors, most of them relatives of the girl, in the police complaint.

The accused forcibly took away Aage from his school to a brick kiln where he was subjected to inhuman torture, according to the prosecution. He was later hanged from a tree.

However, during the trial most of the witnesses, including the staff members at the school who had allegedly seen Aage being taken away by the accused, turned hostile.

The court acquitted all the accused for the lack of sufficient evidence, said public prosecutor Ramdas Gawali.

Raju Aage, Nitin's father, lamented after the verdict that his son had been denied justice. "I am at a loss as to what to do next," he told reporters.