Patiala, December 4
A woman whose three children were murdered by her husband and his three friends got justice when a local fast-track court today awarded death sentence to her husband and one of his friends and life imprisonment to another.
The court awarded death sentence to Kulbir Singh and his friend Bharatinder, alias Bunty, and Khushwant Rai, alias Goldy, for brutally murdering the children on October 11, 1998. Kulbir’s wife Baljit Kaur was the sole witness in the case.
According to a statement given by her, her husband told her that they were going on a holiday and asked her to take the children — Daljit Kaur (13), Vicky (15) and one and a half years old Happy with her. She said before leaving for Rajpura her husband also asked three of his friends, Bunty, Goldy and Rakesh Kumar, to accompany them.
Ms Baljit said her husband and his friends started drinking in the jeep after leaving Panchkula where they were living. Near Rajpura one of them increased the volume of the stereo, following which Rakesh fired at her. Later her husband and his friends started killing the children.
She said while Daljit was killed with a knife, the other were strangled to death. She said she was stabbed several times in the abdomen to ensure that she was dead. She said one of the accused put his hand in front of her nose to see whether she was breathing and even put liqour in her mouth.
Following this, her husband asked Bunty and Goldy to rape her so that the police would think that rape was the reason for the murder. She said she was raped in the jeep and the accused wanted to throw the bodies in the Bhakra canal or the rail tracks but could not do so because of the presence of people at both spots. She said she and the bodies of her children were thrown close to the main road. Baljit told the court that after her sons had been murdered and their clothes taken off to avoid identification one of the accused Rakesh told her husband that he should be happy after committing the murders because he could celebrate the coming Divali with his first wife Jaswinder Kaur. She said she walked naked to a nearby dera to seek help after they left her for dead. She was later admitted to Government Rajindra Hospital in Patiala.
Fast-track court judge K.R. Mahajan pronounced the death sentence on two of the accused, terming it as rarest of rare cases which deserved such a punishment because of the barbaric nature of the crime. Rakesh Kumar has been declared a proclaimed offender.
