NEW DELHI, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- A court in India's western state of Maharashtra Saturday sentenced six people to death for killing three Dalit youths in an incident of honour killing, officials said.
"The Nasik district court has handed over death sentence to six people today in connection with the honour killing of three young Dalit men in year 2013," special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told reporters. "The court also slapped a monetary fine of the convicts."
The three Dalit youths were brutally killed in Sonai village on Jan. 1, 2013, and their mutilated body parts were found in a tank.
The prosecution told court the killings were prompted by an inter-caste love affair between a boy and a girl from the Maratha community.
Dalits were previously known as untouchables in India and fall at the bottom of India's caste hierarchy.
Analysts say Indian society is deeply divided on caste lines.
