Winding up the trial in little over a month, a special court in Telangana on Thursday sentenced three men to death for raping and murdering a Dalit woman last year.
The court also imposed a total fine of Rs 26,000 on them.
The body of the 30-year-old woman with throat slit and stab marks was found in Lingapur mandal of Kumram Bheem-Asifabad district on November 25, 2019, a day after the offence.
The three men were arrested on November 27 and booked under IPC sections including 376 (D) (gang rape) and 302 (murder) besides the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, Additional Public Prosecutor M Ramana Reddy said.
The court found them guilty under all the sections and awarded death penalty.
The woman was a vendor, selling balloons for a living.
Expressing happiness over the verdict, the woman's husband said "We are happy. Justice has been meted out and we request the court that they should be hanged immediately."
The Telangana government had last month issued orders, designating the Fifth Additional Sessions Court as the special court for speedy trial in the case.
On December 14, 2019, a charge sheet was filed and the trial commenced on December 23.
Arguments were completed on January 20 and the case subsequently posted for judgment.
As many 25 witnesses were produced by the prosecution which had been demanding capital punishment on the lines of death penalty awarded to the accused in the Nirbhaya gang rape murder case in Delhi.
The three accused had earlier pleaded not guilty.
Earlier in December, the woman's family and different people's organisations had staged protests and demanded an 'encounter' death for the three men on the lines of the four accused in the 'Disha' (woman veterinarian) gang rape and murder case.
The four accused in the veterinarian case were killed in an alleged exchange of fire with police on the outskirts of Hyderabad on December 6, 2019.
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