Life imprisonment to double murderer

Gangtok, Feb 29 (UNI) A lower court today awarded life imprisonment to Krishna Prasad Shah, a convicted double murderer here.

District and Session (East and North) Judge S.W.Lepcha besides awarding the imprisonment also slapped a fine of Rs.30,000 on Shah.

Shah had been convicted on February 26 by the lower court on charges of double murder, rape and sodomy. He had brutally murdered two minor girls-Srishtika Pariyar (5) and Deepsika Pariyar (3) on January 11, 2004 at Rhenock, East Sikkim. He had also raped the elder girl before killing the cousins. After murdering them, he had decapitated them and had attempted to dispose the body parts in a gunny bag before he was caught.

The chargesheet had been filed against him in March, 2004. The public prosecutor had demanded the capital punishment citing it as a 'rarest of rare' case.

Judge Lepcha said that he was not convinced that it fell under the 'rarest of rare' category and awarded life imprisonment stating that the convict would get time to repent.

The victims' parents said that they were not satisfied with the quantum of the sentence and said that Shah should have been sentenced to death. ''If possible, we will appeal in the higher court,'' said Sujit Pariyar, father of the three-year-old victim.

UNI BG ADG RN1803