: Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange, lone survivor of the 2006 massacre in which four members of a Dalit family were brutally murdered by a mob in the Khairlanji village of Maharashtra, died after a heart attack on Friday.
Mr. Bhotmange’s wife Surekha, daughter Priyanka and two sons — Sudhir and Roshan — were brutally murdered by a mob belonging to the Kunbi caste. The mob was angered over a testimony given by Surekha and Priyanka against some villagers, which led to their arrest in a case connected to an assault on a Dalit from the neighbouring village. Bhotmange (62) was an eyewitness to the massacre.
“He suffered a heart attack in the afternoon and was brought to our hospital at 3.10 p.m. He died at 3.40 p.m.,” said Sagar Bhagade of the Shrikrishna Heartcare hospital, Nagpur.
Thirty-eight people were arrested for the murder of the Bhotmange family members. A fast track court convicted eight of them for the crime in 2008. Six were awarded the death penalty. The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court in 2010 commuted the death penalty.
