SC upholds death sentence to husband and wife for Punia murder

New Delhi, Feb 15 (UNI) The Supreme Court today converted life imprisonment awarded to a couple by Punjab and Haryana high court into death sentence for brutally murdering for property eight members of their own family including former Haryana MLA Relu Ram Punia, his wife and his son, his daughter-in-law and three small children including an infant who was only 45 days old.

A bench comprising Justices B N Agrawal and P P Naolekar while enhancing the sentence awarded to Sonia and her husband Sanjiv observed,"The fact that the murders in question were committed in such a diabolical manner while the victims were asleep, without any provocation, whatsoever from the victims' side, indicates cold-blooded and premeditated approach of the accused to cause death of the victims. The brutality of the act is amplified by the grotesque and revolting manner in which the helpless victims have been murdered which is indicative of the fact that the act was diabolic of most superlative degree in conception and cruel in execution and that both the accused persons are not possessed of the basic humanness and completely lack the psyche or mind set which can be amenable for any reformation. If this act is not revolting or dastardly, it is beyond copmprehension as to what other act can be so.

In view of these facts we are of the view that there would be failure of justice in case death sentence is not awarded in the present case as the same undoubtedly falls within the category of the rarest of rare cases and the high court was not justified in commuting death sentence into life imprisonment." The two convicts had congratulated each other when they killed the victims and husband had according to the trial court judgment kept on saying that punishment for one murder and ten murders was the same.

Accused Sonia who was only 21 years of age at the time of commission of the crime on August 23,2001 is the daughter of deceased Relu Ram and Krishna and the crime was committed as Sonia apprehended that her parents would give major share of the property to her step brother.

Eight other accused in the case were acquitted by the trial court for lack of evidence.

The two were given capital punishment by the trial court while high court reduced the sentence to life imprisonment.

Victims included Relu Ram, wife Krishna, Sunil, brother of Sonia, sister in-law Shakuntala, Priyanka, Lokesh, Shivani and Preeti, sister, nephew and two nieces of Sonia. They were murdered with tractor rods while in sleep.

The apex court in its 66-page judgment written by Justice Agrawal for the bench allowed the appeals of Ram Singh, brother of Relu Ram and state of Haryana against the high court judgment and restored the order of the trial court awarding death sentence to the two appellants and set aside the judgment of high court reducing the sentence to life term.

UNI