NEW DELHI: Supreme Court has commuted the death sentence of a man convicted for murdering his two minor children and directed that he remain in prison till he breathes his last.
Though a bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol, and Sandeep Mehta stated that the crime was barbaric, particularly as it was committed by a parent, who is placed on a higher pedestal and whose word is considered equal to that of God in Indian tradition, it nonetheless granted him life imprisonment, taking into account his lack of criminal antecedents.
“…keeping in view the factors that a) the appellant-convict had no criminal antecedents; b) good relations with deceased persons; c) all mitigating circumstances were not considered by trial court, we direct that the hangman’s noose be taken off the appellant-convict’s neck, and instead that he remains in prison till the end of his days given by God Almighty,” the bench said. On June 16, 2010, the convict had killed his two children – 10-year-old son & three and a half year old daughter – due to some problem in the family in Puttur, Karnataka. He was awarded death sentence by trial court as well as HC after which he moved SC.
“We should not even for a moment be taken to understand that the barbarity of the crime, the helplessness of the two children who met the most unfortunate of ends, and that too at the hands of the very person who bore half the responsibility of bringing them into the world, has escaped us, or we, in any way have condoned such a hideous act, done by the appellant-convict,” the bench said.
