Woman, 3 sons get death in ‘rarest of rare’ case

Agra: A Muzaffarnagar court on Tuesday sentenced four members of a UP family -- three brothers, in their 30s, and their 60-year-old mother -- to death for murdering a 49-year-old man over debt repayment at Bhorakalan’s Sisauli area in 2019.Describing the crime as “rarest of rare” , the court observed: “Human life is a precious gift, and every individual has an equal right to live... In the present case, convicts committed a brutal murder for money, and therefore, awarding the death penalty is the only appropriate course.”On June 17 that year, victim Shekhar Chaudhary from a farming family had gone to Kheri Sudiyan to recover Rs 70,000 he had loaned Ramkumar from the neighbouring village. But Ramkumar along with his sons Pradeep Kumar, 38, Sandeep Kumar, 36, and Sonu Kumar, 30, and his wife Mukesh Devi, 60, attacked Shekhar with sticks. They repeatedly threw bricks at him, and stoned him to death. Shekhar died of head injuries.Shekhar’s mother, Rajbala Devi, who was a witness to the crime, approached local cops. Based on her complaint, an FIR under IPC sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 336 (acts that endanger human life), 504 (intentional insult) and 302 (murder) was registered in Bhorakalan.All five accused were arrested and sent to jail. Ramkumar died in custody due to illness, while the other four were out on bail.Additional district govt counsel Kuldeep Kumar said, “The court of additional district and sessions judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar after examining evidence and witnesses along with autopsy report, and hearing both sides, observed the ‘motive behind the murder -- in an extremely cruel, premeditated and barbaric way -- was to avoid repaying Rs 70,000 debt’.”It noted that the “victim was inflicted with multiple head injuries in a brutal manner that shocks the conscience of society, warranting capital punishment within the ‘rarest of rare’ category as laid down by the Supreme Court”. The court imposed a Rs 50,000 fine on each convict.