Tuesday, February 27, 2007

A Wipe Out

India -- A Haryana village erupted with joy as news came in of the Supreme Court sentencing to death a couple who had mercilessly killed eight members of their immediate family in August 2001 for property worth billions of rupees.

The Supreme Court Thursday upheld the death penalty given to Sonia and her husband Sanjeev Kumar who murdered her father Relu Ram Punia, a former Hissar legislator and billionaire, mother Krishna, stepbrother Sunil and his wife Shakuntala, their three small children aged four, two, and two-months-old, and Sonia's younger sister Priyanka, 16.

The victims were murdered at their sprawling farmhouse, 30 km from Hissar city, after late night festivities to celebrate Priyanka's birthday on Aug 23, 2001.

Sonia, a taekwondo martial arts black-belt holder and only 20-years at the time of the crime, later told police investigators that she and her husband feared that they would be dispossessed of the family's huge property in Haryana and subsequently committed the crime.

Source

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