The criminal act was in fact carried out by assailants from the numerically dominant Kunbi caste[3](classified as Other Backward Classes[4]) for "opposing" the requisition of their field to have a road built over it.
Though CBI investigations concluded that the women were not raped,[5] serious doubt was cast on the reliability of these probes, amid allegations of bribery of doctors who performed the post-mortem, and of corruption.
A government report on the killings, prepared by the social justice department and YASHADA —the state academy of developmental administration, has implicated top police officers, doctors and even a BJP member of the Legislative Assembly, Madhukar Kukade in an alleged coverup and hindering the investigations.
[7] In December 2006, CBI filed a chargesheet against 11 persons on charges of murder, criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly with deadly weapons and outraging the modesty of women.
[5] The media coverage of the incident was initially weak and omitted any mention of caste, but picked up momentum after the Dalit-led protests across Maharashtra grew stronger.
[8] An investigative feature article by Sabrina Buckwalter with the help of social activist Deelip Mhaske in The Times of India provided the first mainstream, in-depth coverage of the massacre.
Several people, including the Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh[12] and the Mumbai Police Commissioner A N Roy[13] remarked that the protests were fuelled by the Khairlanji killings.
Defence lawyers Sudip Jaiswal and Neeraj Khandewale pleaded for leniency in view of the act committed in the heat of the moment and clean past record of the convicts.
[18] The ruling touched off statewide protests and re-kindled the fury of injustice felt by local Scheduled Caste organizations and the sole survivor, Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange.