The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ordered the interim release of Sonia and her husband Sanjeev Kumar, who were convicted for the 2001 massacre of former Haryana MLA Relu Ram Punia and seven members of his family. The court said they must be released on bail until the competent authority decides their plea for premature release.
Justice Surya Pratap Singh had reserved the verdict on November 21 and pronounced it on December 9.
The killings took place on the night of August 23, 2001, at Punia’s farmhouse in Litani village, Hisar. Punia, then 50, was a former MLA from Barwala. The victims included his wife Krishna Devi, their three children, daughter-in-law, and three grandchildren — the youngest a 45-day-old infant. Sonia, one of Punia’s daughters, and her husband Sanjeev Kumar were convicted of the crime.
They were sentenced to death, but in 2014 the Supreme Court commuted their sentences to life imprisonment.
The couple approached the High Court after the Haryana government, through an August 2024 order, rejected their applications for premature release and directed that they remain in jail for the rest of their lives. The petitioners argued that this decision was contrary to the state’s 2002 premature release policy, under which they had applied.
They said they had already served the period required to be considered for remission. Sonia claimed she had completed more than 21 years of actual imprisonment and over 26 years including remission. Kumar said he had served more than 20 years of actual sentence and more than 25 years with remission.
The High Court found the state’s order to be “patently perverse, illegal, unsustainable in the eyes of law,” holding that the authorities had gone beyond their jurisdiction.
The judgment noted that the state-level committee made observations it was not empowered to make, including its remark that the couple should remain in jail until their last breath. The court said the committee’s job was limited to determining whether the case qualified for remission under the 2002 policy.
It also rejected the government’s stance that the couple’s death sentences had been commuted “not on merit but due to delay in deciding their mercy petitions,” observing that a state committee cannot question the reasoning behind a Supreme Court judgment.
Setting aside the Haryana government’s 2024 order, the High Court directed:
- The competent authority must reconsider the couple’s pleas strictly under the April 12, 2002 remission policy.
- A fresh decision must be taken within two months.
- Until then, Sonia and Kumar shall be released on interim bail after furnishing bonds before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Hisar.
The murder of Relu Ram Punia and his family had sent shockwaves across the country at the time, and the legal battle over the couple’s sentence has continued for more than two decades.
