A UP court sentenced a man to death in a 10-year-old double murder case the first time capital punishment has been given in the district, a lawyer said.
The murders, which included the killing of a minor, were the fallout of a two-decade-old property dispute with the complainant.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2.25 lakh on him, Assistant District Government Advocate Davendra Kumar Pandey said.
“The court of additional sessions Judge Pawan Kumar Srivastav on Friday found one Baijnath (38) guilty in murder case of two persons lodged in 2014 and awarded him capital punishment,” Pandey said.
The FIR in the matter was lodged on April 2, 2014 on the basis of a complaint by Rajendra Kumar Chaudhary of Channipur village.
The complainant alleged that he was working in the fields when Baijnath attacked his daughter Gyanti (14) and elder brother Nirmal Chaudhary with a sharp-edged weapon and killed them.
In its order, the judge said, “The incident shocks the collective conscience of the community. Sympathy in any form would be misplaced and it would shake the confidence of the public in the administration of the criminal justice system.”
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“It would be injustice to the society at large if any punishment other than capital punishment is awarded to the accused Baijnath,” the order said.
Police found that the incident was a fallout of a over two-decade-old land dispute.
Pandey said this was the second time that death sentence was given in Maharajganj district since its establishment in 1989. The first capital punishment was given by Additional Sessions Judge Virendra Singh Yadav, he said.
