HC upholds death sentence for murder of family

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court has upheld death sentence of Fatehgarh Sahib resident for killing four members of a family, including two children, in 2004.
The convict, Khushwinder Singh, had killed Kulwant Singh (40), his wife Harjit Kaur (38), their daughter Ramandeep Kaur (16) and son Avrinder Singh (14) in June 2004 by pushing them into the Sirhind canal.
Khushwinder had revealed details of the 2004 murders during interrogation after his arrest for murders of another six people in similar fashion in 2012. He is already on death row for the 2012 murders.
“The present case falls within the ambit of rarest of rare cases. The appellant has killed four persons, including two minor children. Whether the extreme penalty of death sentence is to be awarded, a balance sheet of aggravating and mitigating circumstances has to be drawn up,” said the high court division bench, comprising Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Gurvinder Singh Gill, after dismissing the appeal filed by Khushwinder challenging his death sentence.
The high court said the prosecution has proved its case against the appellant beyond reasonable doubt and the trial court had correctly appreciated the oral as well as documentary evidence.
“The case though based on circumstantial evidence, the chain is complete. The motive attributed to the appellant is that he wanted to grab money of Kulwant Singh, who had recently sold land. The appellant had taken Kulwant and his family to Bhakra canal on the pretext of receiving blessings from some “Baba.” He pushed them into the canal on June 3, 2004 while they were offering prayers. Bodies of Kulwant and his daughter Ramandeep were recovered. However, the bodies of his wife and son were never recovered,” the high court observed while upholding the sentence.
Special CBI court in Mohali had on August 28, 2018 ordered that Khushwinder should be hanged by the neck till he is dead for the murders and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on him.