At midnight hearing, SC stays hanging of man who killed 5 daughters

dna correspondent @dna

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has stayed the execution of a Madhya Pradesh man who was scheduled to be hanged on Thursday morning for beheading his five minor daughters in 2010. Magan Lal Barela had beheaded his five daughters, who were among eight children from two wives, in Sehora district of Madhya Pradesh on June 11, 2010. He told the police he committed the dastardly act as he was furious over property dispute between his two wives. Hearing a petition at his residence on Wednesday midnight, Chief Justice P Sathasivam stayed the execution for a day. The order was immediately conveyed to authorities in Jabalpur central jail, where he is lodged. When the plea came up for hearing on Thursday, the bench of Chief Justice Sathasivam and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai stayed Barela’s execution till further orders and tagged his petition along with pleas of other condemned prisoners who had also sought quashing of capital punishment on various grounds. The People’s Union for Democratic Rights, whose activists had gone to the residence of the Chief Justice with a petition against Barela’s hanging, alleged it was “an illegal, unconstitutional and arbitrary procedure that has been followed in processing the mercy petition and scheduling the execution date of Magan Lal....” The civil rights body sought appropriate remedies that would protect the fundamental rights of Magan Lal. According to the police, Barela murdered his five daughters — Arti (4), Savita (5), Leela, (6), Jamuna, (1), and Phool Kanwar (2) — and attempted suicide. Later, he pleaded that he was under the influence of liquor when he murdered his daughters, but the trial court found his crime as rarest of rare and sentenced him to death. He moved the MP High Court which upheld the lower court’s verdict. The Supreme Court too showed no leniency and upheld the death sentence. His subsequent clemency petition before President Pranab Mukherjee was rejected. On July 22, the President of India formally communicated rejection of his mercy plea, paving way for his execution.

Source:::: DNA, 09/08/2013, p.07, http://epaper.dnaindia.com/epapermain.aspx?pgNo=5&edcode=820009&eddate=2013-8-09