Bihar court awards death penalty to man for killing wife

29 MARCH 2019

Gopalganj (Bihar), Mar 29 A court here on Friday awarded death sentence to a person for killing his wife in the year 2007.

The court also sentenced for life the spouse of his younger brother in the same case. According to public prosecutor Suresh Dubey, the order was passed by District Judge Shailendra Kumar who was hearing the case lodged by Abdul Jabbar, the father of the deceased, Sanjeeda Khatoon. Jabbar is a resident of Dulduliya village under the Manjha police station area of the district. His daughter had got married to Naseeruddin Ahmed of Hardiya village under the Thawe police station area in the year 2003.

According to the complainant, her daughter had been facing harassment for dowry after her marriage and she was poisoned to death on March 17, 2007. In the FIR, Jabbar named his son-in-law, the latter's father Maqsood Alam and the wife of younger brother Salamun Nesha as accused. During the course of trial, Alam passed away. The court held the other two accused as guilty of murder, awarded death penalty to the husband of the deceased and life sentence and Rs 50,000 fine to her sister-in-law. CORR NAC SNS DPB

Source: https://www.outlookindia.com/newsscroll/bihar-court-awards-death-penalty-to-man-for-killing-wife/1505702 (accessed on 29 May 2019)

Man given death sentence for killing minor (Bihar)

Munger | Saturday, May 7 2016 IST

A local court has sentenced to death and slapped a fine of Rs 20,000 to a man for kidnapping and killing a man ten-year-old boy in 2012.Additional district and sessions judge(V) Jyoti Swaroop Srivastava awarded death sentence to Manish Mandal alias Nepali Mandal after hearing the counsels for the state and the accused.

According to prosecution Mandal and two others had kidnapped the boy Aditya Raj from Nakki Nagar locality in 2012 and demanded a ransom of Rs 50,000 from his parents. When they failed to comply with their demand, the boy was strangulated to death.The accused had also sodomised the child and blinded him before strangulating him. Finding the case as "very serious",the judge awarded death sentence to the accused.Two others, involved in the crime, are still evading arrest. 

Source: https://news.webindia123.com/news/Articles/India/20160507/2854390.html (Accessed 20 December 2018) 

Death sentence for one in murder case, another gets lifer (Bihar)

Biharsharif | Tuesday, Feb 9 2016 IST

A local court today awarded death sentence to one person while another was slapped with life term imprisonment in connection with a murder case. Additional District and Session Judge Rajesh Kumar Pandey awarded death sentence to Lala Chaurasiya and life imprisonment to Shankar Mistri in connection with a murder case.

According to the charges, four students had come to Biharsharif on May 31, 2014 to appear in polytechnic examination and in the evening they went to Hiranya Hills for a stroll. Criminals attacked them there and the two convicts pushed the students from the hills when they resisted their loot bid. Two students had lost their lives in the incident while other sustained injuries.

Source: https://news.webindia123.com/news/Articles/India/20160209/2790773.html (Accessed on 20 December 2018)

Bihar death row convicts’ families fear the worst

GAYA (BIHAR):, JANUARY 25, 2014 03:06 IST

UPDATED: MAY 13, 2016 12:20 IST

Rahi Gaikwad

For the family of death row convict Krishna Mochi, time has lost its value. Mochi was arrested and jailed in the Bara massacre case of 1992. He never got bail. Ten years have passed since he sent a mercy plea to the President, but he has not heard anything since. After 22 years of his absence, the family ascribes little value to the possibility of his death sentence getting commuted. “My father never speaks of being released. He only says there is no update, nothing is happening,” Mochi’s son Ajay said. Mochi along with three others, Nanhe Lal Mochi, Bir Kuer Paswan and Dharmendra Singh alias Dharu Singh were in 2001 awarded capital punishment by a sessions court in connection with the massacre of 35 Bhumihars (a landed caste) by the Maoist Communist Centre.

They were tried under the provisions of Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act. In 2002, the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty by a majority of 2:1, in a three-judge bench. Justice M.B. Shah differed from the majority view. He acquitted Singh and commuted the death sentences of the other three to life. All the four convicts have been lodged at the Bhagalpur Central Jail. The jail authorities told The Hindu that their mercy plea was dispatched from the jail on March 3, 2003. Since then there has been no word on their petitions. “The SC confirmed the death sentences of the four convicts. They filed their petitions with the President in 2003. They are pending since then,” KP Pingwa, superintendent of the Bhagalpur Central Jail told The Hindu.

 Family of death row convict Krishna Mochi

Mochi’s family meets him in jail once or twice a year. The yearly visit is a three-day affair and entails an expenditure of Rs. 600 – a steep sum for them. A year and a half ago, Mochi was operated for appendicitis. He is now slated to undergo a cataract surgery. “If we have money, we go to meet him,” Ajay said. “Having spent so many years in jail, what death sentence are we talking about now? It’s high time he should be released,” Mochi’s wife Chandramani said. At Dharu Singh’s house, his wife Lalita Devi and mother Devrani Devi appear broken. “He has been in jail since 1999. He says his petition is pending with the President. We are hopeful that something will happen, but nothing as yet has. We hear the President has no pending petitions. Can’t they release him? This is a house without a man; no one wants to marry my daughter,” Lalita Devi said.

Lacking the means to engage legal help, the families are clueless about the petitions. They also believe the death penalties have been commuted to life. “Father said in 2011 that ‘ Phansi kat gaya [death sentence was commuted].’ But what has happened after that we do not know,” Arun Paswan, son of Bir Kuer Paswan said. The jail authorities denied any such development. The recent landmark judgment of the apex court could raise the convicts’ hopes. The court overturned an earlier judgment which drew a distinction between murders related to terrorism and others. But, confusion abounds on the status of their mercy pleas. While the jail officials claimed they are pending with the President, the Ministry of Home Affairs denied any knowledge of them. On the other hand, Bihar’s Principle Secretary, Home, Amir Subhani, said the State government had “no role to play” in the matter of forwarding their petitions.

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/bihar-death-row-convicts-families-fear-the-worst/article5615430.ece (Accessed on 18 December 2018)

Govt lost mercy petition of 4 Maoist convicts on death row

Updated: Jul 31, 2015 00:14 IST

First Published: Jul 31, 2015 00:11 IST

Four death row convicts in Bihar have been waiting for a decision on their mercy petition for more than a decade because their plea to be spared the gallows was lost somewhere in Delhi.

Four death row convicts in Bihar have been waiting for a decision on their mercy petition for more than a decade because their plea to be spared the gallows was lost somewhere in Delhi. The four Maoist Communist Centre cadre had been sentenced to death by a TADA court in 2001 for the Bara massacre in Bihar’s Gaya district. Bir Krishna Mochi, Nanhe Lal, Birkuer Paswan and Dharam were convicted for being part of the group that killed 35 people from the Bhumihar community on 13 February 1992.

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence by a 2-1 majority in 2002, with the dissenting judge, Justice MB Shah – who now heads the special investigative team on black money – unconvinced about their guilt. A mercy petition filed by them in 2003 initially shuttled between different departments of the Bihar government before it was sent to the Centre on July 7, 2004. And then, everyone forgot about the mercy petition.

It was only last year that human rights activist Suhas Chakma figured someone had lost the petition. “We noticed that neither the Home ministry nor Rashtrapati Bhavan seemed to have any record of this mercy petition but the Bihar government insisted it had been sent,” Chakma, who heads the Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR), said. “This is exactly the kind of a case that former president APJ Abdul Kalam would have had in mind when he worried that only the poor and downtrodden ended up in the death row,” he added, contrasting the government’s lackadaisical approach with the super-sonic speed with which Yakub Memon’s mercy petition was cleared in just about a week.

At the National Human Rights Commission that is hearing Chakma’s request for its help to spare the four men from the gallows, the Bihar government last November told the panel that they had sent another copy of the petitions to the home ministry. Chakma said there were several cases where the Supreme Court had commuted death sentence because of a three year delay in processing the mercy petitions. In this case, the delay exceeds 12 years, he said.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/govt-lost-mercy-petition-of-4-maoist-convicts-on-death-row/story-wbh5p0An1ulPixzsJNUptN.html (Accessed on 18 December 2018)

Bihar: Court gives death sentence to rapist

Press Trust of India | Gaya (Bihar) 

May 28, 2015 Last Updated at 21:22 IST

A district court today awarded death sentence to a 28-year-old youth for rape-cum murder of a minor girl three years ago. 

Sanjay Kumar, the convicted, had lured a 7-year-old girl to a field at Daler village in the Medical police station area of Gaya district, raped her and then killed her for fear of being caught. 

The incident had occurred on March 10, 2012.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/court-gives-death-sentence-to-rapist-115052801700_1.html [last accessed 01.06.2015]

Bihar: Four suspected Maoists get death sentence in murder case

Press Trust of India  |  Sheohar (Bihar)  March 30, 2015 Last Updated at 21:13 IST

A court in Bihar's Sheohar district today awarded death sentence to four suspected Maoists convicted in the murderof five people in an attack at a village in Bihar's Sheohar district five years ago. 

Additional District and Sessions Judge Sampoornand Tiwari sentenced to death Ugan Ram Atkoni, Hamid Ansari, Santosh Sah and Bhagirath Sah, suspected Maoists, after finding them guilty in the murder of five people Raman Village on May 11, 2010. 

The victims - Mukesh Rai, father Siyaram Rai, uncle Sribhagwan Rai, Manohar Thakur and Vishwat Thakur - were hacked to death, Public Prosecutor Shalendra said. 

Subodh Kumar, now a mukhiya of Rohua panchayat, had lodged an FIR after the attack.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/four-suspected-maoists-get-death-sentence-in-murder-case-115033000942_1.html  [last accessed 09 April 2015]

Bihar - India convicts four men over minister’s 1975 murder

Khaleej Times 

(AFP) / 8 December 2014

They were convicted over a bombing that killed the country's railway minister LN Mishra in Bihar four decades ago. In a case highlighting epic delays plaguing India’s overburdened legal system, a New Delhi court on Monday convicted four men over a bombing that killed the country’s railway minister nearly four decades ago. The four men, currently out on bail, were convicted of murder, criminal conspiracy and causing hurt using dangerous weapons.

The men, now in their 60s, face life terms or possibly the death penalty. But Indian courts only order executions in what they call the “rarest of rare” cases. The court will decide on the sentence on December 15. “The court’s verdict about my grandfather L.N Mishra’s murder is nothing to cheer about,” Rishi Mishra, 37, a legislator in east India’s Bihar state, said. “If it can take almost four decades for a court ruling in case of a cabinet minister’s murder, just imagine the ordeal of a common man,” Mishra said. The case involved a bomb blast at a railway station in Bihar on January 2, 1975, that killed Mishra and two other people.

Mishra was one of the country’s best-known ministers and enjoyed considerable clout as a politician close to then-prime minister Indira Gandhi. He was attending a function at the railway station to inaugurate a line at the time of the blast. The reason for the blast still remains unclear. Gandhi blamed “foreign elements”, without elaborating. Family members earlier had complained that an official commission of inquiry into Mishra’s death was “eyewash”. Mishra was seen as a controversial figure in Gandhi’s ruling Congress Party and had been accused by opposition parties of financial corruption.

Other reports at the time said Mishra was a Congress fund-raiser and there were questions about delays in his medical treatment. The first formal charges were filed against the men on November 1, 1977. More than 200 witnesses, including 161 from the prosecution and 40 from the defence, were examined during the almost four-decade long trial. Lawyers for the four men — who were present in court and appeared devastated by the verdict — said they would appeal. India’s legal system is heavily overburdened. Part of the problem is a shortage of judges and demands for a huge amount of paperwork and it is also plagued by issues such as corruption.

Source: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-1.asp?xfile=data/international/2014/December/international_December199.xml&section=international 

[last accessed 06.02.2015]

Bihar - Man awarded death sentence for kidnapping, killing child

TNN | Sep 7, 2014, 02.06AM IST KATIHAR: A Katihar court on Friday awarded capital punishment to one Bijan Mahto, a resident of Rajiganj under Korha police station area, in a kidnapping-cum-killing case of a child in 2012. Delivering the judgment, the court-II of additional district and sessions judge (ADJ) Raghupati Singh also imposed a penalty of Rs 50,000 on the accused. Mahto was charged with kidnapping the boy and throwing his body at Boro ghat. This is the second such case where a Katihar court has awarded the capital punishment. Mahto will also be undergoing one year rigorous imprisonment in case he fails to pay the penalty Additional public prosecutor (APP) Rajendra Mishra, giving graphic details of the case, said that a two-and-a-half-year-old boy Suman Kumar, son of a middle school teacher Hira Lal Mahto, was kidnapped on January 19, 2012. The toddler's father lodged an FIR with Korha police station on January 20, 2012, when he failed to trace his son. On the confessional statement of abductor Bijan Mahto, who was arrested on January 20, the infant's body was recovered from Boro ghat on January 21, 2012. Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Patna/Man-awarded-death-sentence-for-kidnapping-killing-child/articleshow/41897844.cms [last accessed 06.02.2015]