New Delhi, February 15
The death sentence to a daughter of former Haryana MLA Relu Ram and her husband was today restored by the Supreme Court for wiping out the entire family of her father in cold blood, termed as cruel, diabolic and dastardly act of crime by the court, committed six years ago due to greed for property.
Sonia with the help of her husband Sanjeev mercilessly killed her father Relu Ram, mother Krishna, her sister Priyanka, stepbrother Sunil, his wife Shakuntla and their three children Lokesh (4 years), Shivani (2 years) and Preeti (45 days) by hitting them one after the other with a iron rod when they were fast asleep on the night of August 23, 2001, at their farm house in Litani Mod in Hisar.
The sessions judge, Hisar, had sentenced the duo to death, but the Punjab and Haryana High Court, on appeal, commuted the capital punishment to life imprisonment, challenged in the Supreme Court by the Haryana Government and Relu Ram’s brother Ram Singh.
This was one among the rare cases where a woman accused had been awarded death sentence by the court for the brutal murder as it found that her role in the crime was far greater than that of her husband.
Setting aside the high court’s verdict of April 12, 2005, and restoring the trial judge’s order of May 31, 2004, a Bench of Mr Justice B.N. Agrawal and Mr Justice P.P. Naolekar said, “The brutality of the act is amplified by the grotesque and revolting manner in which the helpless victims have been murdered, which is indicative that the act is diabolic of most superlative degree in conception and cruel in execution”.
Sonia, a daughter of Relu Ram from his second wife, according
the prosecution, could not digest that her stepbrother, Sunil, would have a share in a piece of land over which she had a dispute with him.
She had got an impression that her father was favouring Sunil, a son from his first wife.
Relu Ram had married Krishna after the death of his first wife and besides Sonia, had another daughter Priyanka from her.
Not finding the high court judgement as per guidelines laid down by the apex court for handing down sentences in the rarest of rare cases like this, Mr Justice Agrawal, writing the judgement for the Bench, said husband and wife “are not possessed of the basic humanness and completely lack the psyche or mindset which can be amenable for any reformation”.
Also questioning the high court for taking a lenient view against the accused, the Bench asked, “If this act is not revolting and dastardly, it is beyond comprehension as to what other act can be so”.
The apex court said it would be the failure of justice if the death sentence awarded to the husband and wife duo by the trial judge was not restored as the case by all standards fell in the rarest of rare category and the high court was not justified in commuting the capital punishment and reducing it to life sentence.
Sonia’s attempt to commit suicide by consuming opium after the brutal murders, including that of her real sister Priyanka, whose birthday the family celebrated on that fateful night, was described by the prosecution as an effort to misguide the police.
