Triple murder case: Four of a family get life term

MUZAFFARPUR: A local court on Friday sentenced four members of a family to life imprisonment in a two-year-old triple murder case. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 5,000 each on the four convicts and awarded an additional three years of rigorous imprisonment to them for throwing away the bodies of the deceased.
Earlier on December 16, the court had held the four guilty of killing Sheela Devi (26), her daughter Prachi (8) and son Utkarsh (6).
“Additional district judge (ADJ)-VI Radheshyam Shukla, while pronouncing the quantum of punishment, said the convicts will have to undergo imprisonment for an additional period of one one year if they fail to pay the amount of fine imposed on them,” government prosecutor Dharmendra Kumar Chaudhury said.
According to Chaudhury, one of the convicts, Rajiv Kumar Singh, father of Prachi, had confessed to his involvement in the crime before the court. “Rajiv had accepted that he along with his brother Sanjiv Kumar Singh (22), father Duryoddhan Singh (60) and mother Madhuri Devi (55) had killed his wife after strangulating her. “The murder was witnessed by Rajiv’s daughter Prachi and son Utkarsh, who were also killed by the convicts. The bodies of the three victims were later disposed in Motipur and Meenapur areas of Muzaffarpur,” Chaudhury said.
Rajiv and his family members, all residents of Majraji village under the Pipra police station area in East Champaran district, were charged with murder for dowry. An FIR was lodged at Motipur police station on the statement of Mahendra Ram, a chowkidar, on February 10, 2017.
Sheela’s father Nagendra had also registered a dowry case with Pipra police station, accusing his son-in-law Rajiv and other family members of killing his daughter and grandchildren for not getting Rs 2 lakh and a motorcycle as dowry.