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The man killed his children to teach his wife a lesson for not supporting him when he disapproved of her sister’s affair. He was also separately tried and convicted for the murders of his sister-in-law and mother-in-law
The SC bench commuted the death sentence into imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life. (Image: PTI/File)
The Supreme Court recently commuted the death penalty of a bank manager, who killed his two children in June 2010, to teach his wife a lesson for not supporting him when he disapproved of the person her sister was having an affair with. He was also separately tried and convicted for the murders of his sister-in-law and mother-in-law.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol, and Sandeep Mehta upheld the man’s conviction for the murders of his minor children, aged 10 and three-and-a-half. But, the bench commuted the sentence of capital punishment into imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life, as he had no criminal antecedents and had good relations with the deceased.
“We direct that the hangman’s noose be taken off the appellant-convict’s neck, and instead that he remains in prison till the end of his days given by God Almighty,” said the bench, stressing that when the death sentence is imposed, it should only be done so if possible.
The court found that an objective consideration of all the factors in favour of the person accused of having committed the offence was not done properly in the present case. But, the bench clarified, “We should not even for a moment be taken to understand that the barbarity of the crime, the helplessness of the two children who met the most unfortunate of ends, and that too at the hands of the very person who bore half the responsibility of bringing them into the world, has escaped us, or we, in any way have condoned such a hideous act, done by the appellant-convict.”
The top court noted that the sister-in-law and mother-in-law, too, were killed for no fault of theirs. “He (the convict) shall now await his natural end, without remission, in the confines of a penitentiary,” the bench said.
The appeal was filed challenging the Karnataka High Court’s judgment dated September 22, 2017, which confirmed the conviction and death sentence awarded to the convict by additional district and sessions judge, Dakshin Kannada, in 2013.
The convict was working as a manager at the Solapur Branch of the Punjab National Bank. He was married to an employee of the State Bank of Mysore, Mangalore branch. The couple had two children.
It was alleged that the convict was dissatisfied with the behaviour and life choices of his sister-in-law, for whom he got a job at the Provident Fund office. The woman fell in love with her co-worker and wanted to marry him. The convict first tried to dissuade her, but after finding that his wife and mother-in-law did not support him, he tried to teach the family a lesson.
He then killed his sister-in-law and mother-in-law at Tumkur village and dumped their bodies inside a tank on June 16, 2010, and then came to Mangalore the next day. On the pretext of showing his children around the city, he threw them inside a tank in the gardens of another property, where they drowned.
After this, he sent a message to his wife informing her about what he had done, and that she should also end her life by jumping into a well. Concerned, she informed her relatives, who advised her to approach the police following which an FIR was registered and an investigation launched.
