The proceedings of the Yellapatar gang rape and murder case which ended on Thursday in death penalty for the three accused awarded by the designated Special Court for its speedy trial becomes the third instance when the Sessions Court in Adilabad awarded capital punishment. The latest verdict has brought back memories of two earlier cases, though their nature was entirely different.
The first case was one of murder and was tried in 1973-74 as recalled by the legal fraternity. That trial and judgement of 45 year back had come in much different circumstances so far as logistics was concerned.
The case in question refers to the death sentence awarded by the then Sessions Judge to Bhoomaiah and Kishta Goud, two of the three accused in the case of murder of a moneylender in a village in what is now Tiryani mandal of Kumram Bheem Asifabad district. The two, accused number 2 and 3 Bhoomaiah and Kishta Goud, were said to be naxalites of the then Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People’s War Group.
“The trial was conducted in Asifabad court by the then District Judge Y. Vasudeva Rao as the offence happened under the jurisdiction of Asifabad taluk (now in KB Asifabad district),” recalled senior advocate in Adilabad Bar Association, Shashikant Rao Deshpande. “In those days, the Sessions Court in Adilabad used to function from Asifabad court for 15 days in a month,” he explained as he walked down the memory lane even recalling his own function as State brief for the accused number 1 in the case who was arrested after the death sentence of the other two was carried out.
Mr. Deshpande remembered freedom fighter and Asifabad advocate D. Gopal Kishan Rao being State Brief for Bhoomaiah and Kishta Goud. “They were awarded death sentence which was upheld by the then Andhra Pradesh High Court and Supreme Court and were finally executed in Chanchalguda prison in December 1975,” he added.
The second death sentence had come in the year 1981, also in a murder case but, the sentence was not confirmed by the High Court. The current death penalty has come about four decades later.
