Allahabad HC Confirms Death Penalty For Man Accused Of Murdering Brother & His Entire Family [Read Judgment]

The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday confirmed death penalty awarded to a man convicted for the murder of six persons.

Gambhir Singh was convicted by the trial court after it found him guilty of the murder of his brother and his entire family, consisting of a wife and four children, by slitting their necks. All the children were below the age of five. The motive behind the murder was some property dispute between the brothers.

Upholding the conviction recorded by the trial court, the bench observed: "All family members were done to death. Circumstances established by the prosecution are firm, cogent and believable. Chain of events are completed and linked with each other. There is no chance of false implication of accused."

The court also took note of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances in this case. Various case-laws in the matter of awarding death sentence were also taken note of.

The bench finally observed: "He slayed six lives to quench his thirst. The entire incident is extremely revolting and shocks the collective conscience of the community. Murders were committed in gruesome, merciless and brutal manner… Balancing mitigating and aggravating factors and looking to the fact that appellant has committed crime in a really shocking manner showing depravity of mind, in our view, the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating circumstances by all canons of logic and punishment of life imprisonment would neither serve the ends of justice nor will be an appropriate punishment. Here is a case which can be said to be in the category of "rarest of rare" case and justify award of death punishment to accused." 

Read the Judgment Here