14 years on,SC upholds death for convict in triple murder case

Medical evidence found that Singh had stabbed Manish 11 times,Sheela five times and Sonu 21 times to ensure their deaths. Prosecution said Singh was accompanied by his mother Chandrawati — who had been deserted by his father Jaswant Singh — and two others at the time of commission of the crime.

Delhi High Court,while confirming the trial court verdict on January 13,2006,observed that the “lust for two ‘Z’s,i.e.,zar (wealth) and zameen (land) by the appellants,led to the commission of this ghastly crime. The genesis lay in the second marriage of one of the appellant’s father. Thus the third proverbial ‘Z’,i.e.,zun (woman) too played its part”.

The Supreme Court Bench of Justices P Sathasivam and B S Chauhan agreed with the High Court’s observation that “the magnitude of the crime is a triple murder completed in a most diabolic,cruel and ghastly manner”.

The Bench said two of Atbir’s victims were children who lost their lives without any fault of their own. There was no provocation or instigation on their part,it observed.

“An innocent girl of 18 years and a boy in his teens with their mother who was helpless before Atbir,who was armed. The brutality of the act,as noted earlier,is amplified by the repeated stab wounds inflicted on the three deceased persons,one after another in succession. These demonstrate that the appellant does not possess basic humaneness and lacks the psyche or mindset which may be amenable for any reform,” the High Court had pronounced.

Of the co-accused in the case,the Delhi High Court in 2006 awarded Ashok life imprisonment and the mother was declared a proclaimed offender.

The fourth accused,Arvind,was given the benefit of doubt and eventually acquitted.