The Supreme Court has confirmed death sentence to two persons held guilty of eliminating seven of a family which included five children.The incident of January 1, 2006 reported from Patna involved the family of a man whose wife, two daughters and three sons were eliminated since he had deposed in a court against the accused for stealing his cattle.
To seek vengeance, the accused, Deepak Rai and Jagat Rai, along with other men had entered the house of the deceased, gagged him and sprinkled kerosene on him and set him on fire. His family consisting his wife, daughters aged 12 and 10, sons aged 3, 6, and 8 were sleeping inside the room. The accused bolted the door from outside and set the house on fire, resulting in the death of the entire family. The Court held, “The entire incident is extremely revolting and shocks the collective conscience of the community.”
With the prosecution presenting a firm case that resulted in death awarded to three persons by the trial court and High Court, the apex court observed, “The crime, enormous in proportion having wiped off the whole family, is committed so brutally that it pricks and shocks not only the judicial conscience but even the collective conscience of the society.”
The bench of Justices Hl Dattu, SJ Mukhopadhaya and MY Eqbal upheld death for two while the third was handed life sentence. While awarding death, the Court observed that the accused are “perfect example of blood thirsty, scheming and hardened criminals” that killed seven innocent lives to quench their thirst for revenge in a case where the victim had refused to abstain from resorting to machinery of law to protect his rights.”