Indian court convicts 269 officials for rape, murder

Sep 29, 2011, 18:02 GMT

New Delhi - A court in southern India on Thursday convicted 269 police and forest officials for atrocities against more than 100 Dalits, who are at the bottom of the country's caste ladder, in 1992.

While all 269 officers were convicted for atrocities against low-caste Dalits, 17 were also found guilty of rape, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported online.

Of those convicted, 100 were policemen and 155 were forest officials. Fifty-four accused died during the trial.

The court passed the sentences later Thursday.

While the maximum punishment was handed out to the rapists, others were sentenced to jail terms of one year or two years, the IANS news agency reported.

Among the 17 convicted for rape, 12 were given 17 years in jail and five were sentenced to five years each, the report said.

In June 1992, the officials were part of teams that raided the village of Vachathi, in the Krishnagiri district of southern Tamil Nadu state, searching for smuggled sandalwood.

Vachathi, some 250 kilometres west of state capital Chennai, is near the Sathyamangalam forests, the then base of infamous sandalwood smuggler and elephant poacher Veerappan.

The teams raided Vachathi suspecting the villagers were hiding smuggled sandalwood. During the two-day raid, 18 women were raped and 100 villagers were brutally beaten.

According to the prosecution, the Central Bureau of Investigation, the officials dragged men and women out of their homes, thrashing them and demolishing their huts.

Several women were forced onto trucks and taken to nearby forest department buildings where they were raped, the prosecution said.

Atrocities against Dalits, who were once called 'untouchables,' are common in India. While 'untouchability' was legally abolished more than half a century ago, discrimination against Dalits continues, often at the hand of upper-caste Hindus.

Many human rights campaigners were angered by the delay in the verdict, according to news reports. India's judicial system is notorious for its glacial pace in deciding cases, and courts take years before pronouncing their verdicts.