Three men were sentenced to death in Karnataka, India, on Monday after being found guilty of murdering a man and gangraping two women, including an Israeli tourist.
The convicted men have been given the death sentence for the murder of the man and the sexual assault of the two women in the Koppal district of Karnataka in India. The incident took place in March 2025. The crime scene was about 25 km from the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hampi, stated The Times of India report. The incident had sparked widespread outrage.
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'Rarest of rare' crime
The court noted that the crime was one of the "rarest of rare" types. It found that the prosecution had proven the accused's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, reported The Times of India.
The accused have been identified as Mallesh alias Handimalla, 22, Sai alias Chaitanya Sai, 21, and Sharanappa alias Sharanabasavaraj, 30, from Sai Nagar, Gangavathi.
Incident details
Bibash Nayak, 26, a tour guide from Odisha, was killed in the attack while accompanying the women and two other male tourists. The assailants robbed the survivors, taking two mobile phones and Rs 9,500 in cash before escaping, The Times of India reported.
According to police, the victims (two women and three men) had met at a homestay near Hampi. They were stargazing near the Tungabhadra Left Bank Canal when the suspects, who were reportedly drunk, attacked them.
Superintendent of police Ram L Arasiddi was quoted as saying by The Times of India, "Two of the accused were arrested within 24 hours of the crime. We had gathered 101 witnesses and 84 articles for DNA testing. It was a challenging and sensitive case."
The homestay owner had taken the tourists on a sightseeing trip when the three convicted men, Mallesh (Handimalla), Saikumar and Sharanabasavaraj, blocked the road on a motorcycle, stating that they wanted to resolve a "financial conflict".
The attackers then pushed the three men from the group into a nearby canal and proceeded to gang-rape the two women. The attackers then threw stones at the men to keep them from climbing up, reported The Jerusalem Post. In the process, one of the men was killed, the report stated.
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The men have been found guilty of the crime of gangrape, murder, attempt to murder, robbery and extortion.
'Imprisonment till last breath'
"Hence, the Judge Sadananda Nagappa Naik under section 103 of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita gave them capital punishment. For the gang rape, the court ordered imprisonment till their last breath," the public prosecutor in charge of the case said, as quoted by The Jerusalem Post.
