Keenan-Reuben murder: All 4 accused found guilty, sentenced to life

All four men who attacked and killed Keenan Santos and Reuben Fernandez were on Thursday convicted by a special women’s court in Mumbai.

A special women’s court in Mumbai held four men guilty of killing Keenan Santos and Reuben Fernandez and sentenced them to life in jail four years after two men were killed while trying to save their women friends from harassment.

On October 20, 2011 Keenan Santos and Reuben Fernandez were attacked outside a popular eatery in Amboli when they tried to shield their female friends from a group of eve-teasers.

Santos and Fernandez were attacked outside a popular eatery in Amboli area in Andheri while trying to protect their female friends from a group of harassers on October 20, 2011. They were stabbed brutally by four men.

Santos died on the same day and Fernandez died on October 30.

Police arrested the four accused - Jitendra Rana, Sunil Bodh, Satish Dulhaj and Dipak Tival - the next day and a fast-track court framed charges against them for murder, conspiracy and molestation in October.

Judge Vrushali Joshi pronounced the verdict soon after the accused were produced in the court packed with family members of the deceased and relatives of the accused.

Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam demanded that all the four accused be given life imprisonment till death. Nikam said the judgement should send a strong message to people at large that one cannot get away with eve-teasing, and not at all with murder.

While the judge did not make any observation, she said the prosecution has proved murder and common intention of murder against all the accused men.