‘Serial killer’ to be sentenced Monday

A city court is set to sentence Chandrakant Jha, who was, on January 24, held guilty of having killed and dismembered three men. One of his victims, whose headless body was thrown outside Tihar Jail in May 2007, was not identified by the family of the victim but is believed to be that of his employee Dilip, according to Jha's confession.

Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau had held Jha, a vegetable seller, guilty of the murder of three men in 2006-07 on the basis of forensic and circumstantial evidence.

According to the prosecution, Jha strangled three of his employees — Amit, Upendra and Dilip — after he "got annoyed" over "petty matters".

On Saturday, the court heard arguments from the prosecution and the defence regarding the quantum of sentence to be awarded to Jha. Public Prosecutor P K Verma, in his arguments before court, has demanded death penalty for Jha, stating that he had killed three men in a brutal manner.

The prosecutor has also argued that Jha had dismembered the bodies and thrown the pieces in various places. "The convict had thrown the dismembered bodies of three victims outside Tihar Jail and taunted the authorities to catch him. He also cut off the heads, legs, arms and private parts of the victims," the prosecutor said.

ASJ Lau has fixed February 4, 5 and 6 to pronounce the sentence against Jha for the three separate murders. On Monday, the court will pronounce the sentence for the murder of Dilip, whose parents had been unable to identify the body. "The IPC does not require identity of the human body to have been established. Section 302 requires proof of the death of a human body, not that the body be identified. It is therefore possible to convict the accused and pass death sentence," the prosecutor said.

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