It took about one hour for Adilabad District Judge M.G. Priyadarshini to go through the necessary legal process before she pronounced death penalty for the three accused in the heinous Yellapatar rape and murder case on Thursday through absolute silence in the court hall. The silence was punctured only by the muted sobs of Shaik Babu, Shaik Shabuddin and Shaik Maqdoom, the accused who pleaded not guilty when the Judge informed them that they were found guilty and whether they wanted to say something in their defence.
Outside the court hall, people who were connected with the case directly or indirectly or those who had gathered just out of curiosity displayed rising anxiety as the moment of reckoning drew closer. The family of the victim and relatives who had come from their native Gosampalle village in Khanapur mandal of Nirmal district openly expressed their desire that the accused get capital punishment.
They erupted in joy, if their happiness with the verdict can be called so, soon after the judgement was pronounced. The victim’s husband, Teku Gopi, now a government employee, fell on the feet of Kumram Bheem Asifabad Superintendent of Police M. Malla Reddy in gratitude and thanked Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) M. Ramana Reddy.
The Adilabad Bar Association too expressed happiness over the sentence and felicitated the SP and the APP for ‘successful’ conduct of the trial. Later in the afternoon, the family members of Maqdoom arrived at the court and accused Babu of misguiding the other two accused.
