In an significant judgement, Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court here on Monday upheld the judgement of district court which had awarded death sentence to three accused in connection with sensational triple murder case which had rocked the city three years back.

 This is for the first time that the High Court has upheld the death sentence to a female accused in Madhya Pradesh. The High Court ruling today came almost nine months after the district court had awarded death sentence to all the three accused – vis-a-vas Neha Verma, Manoj Atodh and Rahul Choudhary who had brutally killed three senior women members of Deshpande family namely Ashlesha (21), her mother Megha (42) and grandmother Rohini Phadke (70) in Srinagar locality of the city on June 19, 2011.

 Almost two-and-half year after the incident, the district court here in a landmark judgement on December 13, 2013 had awarded death sentence to all three accused, convicting them for murder, dacoity and trespass.

One of the key accused in the murder case, Neha Verma, a beautician, had plotted the robbery and had entered Deshpande’s residence by befriending the mother, Megha, after requesting her for a job. Megha fell into the trap and allowed Neha entry while discussing household issues.

 later, Neha took two of her accomplices Rahul and Manoj into the Deshpande home and ruthlessly killed the women after opening fire. They decamped with booty of Rs 1.5 lakh in cash, ornaments worth Rs 5 lakh and two ATM cards.

 All the three accused were later arrested by the city police within few days of the incident.  The city police later referred the case to the district court which after series of hearings in connection with the case finally awarded death sentence to them on December 13, 2013, observing that the case come under a rarest of rare case in which three helpless women of three generations were murdered for quick money.