State Of U.P vs Alok Verma

Heard Mr. Pramod Swarup, learned senior counsel

appearing for the petitioner-State of U.P.

The allegations against the respondent accused,

which have been found true by the courts below, are

that the respondent murdered his wife and four children

(three sons and one daughter) and caused injuries to

another daughter with knife and axe taking the help of

a hired person. This is because his wife protested

against his indulgence in gambling, taking liquor and

crimes like kidnapping. He had earlier to undergo

imprisonment for one year in a case of kidnapping. His

wife tried to persuade him not to commit these illegal

acts and get reformed, but instead he would often beat

her, and ultimately he committed these ghastly and

brutal crimes of murdering his wife and four children,

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who are aged about 10, 8, 5 and 2 years respectively.

The surviving daughter Priyanka is an eye witness and

that apart there is convincing circumstantial evidence

also on the basis of which the respondent has been

convicted by the courts below.

The injuries on the deceased Shikha, wife of the

accused-respondent are as follows :-

1. Multiple incised wounds over face and

forehead size 1 cm x 0.5 cm to 3 cm x 0.5 cm

bone deep.

2. Incised wound 4 cm x 1 cm trachea deep on

front of neck below hyoid bone. On

dissection the underlying large vessels,

tracheas and nerves were cut.

3. Incised wound 4 cm x 1 cm size muscle deep on

back of root of neck.

4. Incised wound 4 cm x .5 cm muscle deep on top

of (Rt.) shoulder.

5. Incised wound of 3 cm x 0.5 cm muscle deep on

back of and middle of (Rt.) upper arm.

The injuries on the deceased Chhoutey, aged about

5 years, son of the accused respondent are as follows:-

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1. Incised wound of 3 cm x 1 cm size skull deep till

upper cavity of skull. This wound was 2 cm above

the right eyebrow on the right side of the skull.

Skull bone was broken. Thereafter, it was found

that brain and brain membrane was also cut and

blood mix fluid was present in the cavity of

skull.

2. Incised wound 3 cm x 1 cm size bone deep which was

above the right eye brow on the right side of the

forehead.

3. Incised wound 2 cm x 1 cm size just above the

injury No 2.

4. Incised wound 2 cm x 1 cm size muscle deep in the

middle of the front of the neck.

5. Contusion 8 cm x 6 cm size upon the skull.

The injuries on Rahul, aged about 10 years, son of the

deceased and the accused respondent, are as follows :-

1. Contusion of 8 cm x 3 cm size on the front of the

neck.

2. Incised wound 5 cm x 1 cm breathing duct deep in

the front of the neck. This injury was very close

to the injury No.1 On dissection, blood vessels,

nerves, muscles and breathing duct etc. were found

to be cut.

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3. Incised wound 4 cm x 1 cm skull deep. This injury

was 3 cm above the left eye, on the left side of

the skull bone of skull, brain and brain membrane

were found to be cut. Blood mix fluid was found to

present in the cavity of skull.

4. Incised wound 3 cm x 1 cm muscle deep 12 cm above

the middle of forehead in the front of skull.

5. Incised wound 2.5 cm x 1 cm muscle deep behind the

right ear.

The injuries on Uttam Kumar, aged about 8 years,

son of the deceased and the accused respondent are as

follows :-

1. Incised wound 3 cm x 1 cm bone deep in the upper

part of the body.

2. Incised wound 3 cm x 1 cm x deep bone in the

middle of the forehead.

3. Incised wound 2 cm x 1 cm x skull deep outside the

left eye on the left side of the face. The bone,

muscle, blood vessels, brain and brain membrane

were found to be cut. The fluid with blood was

filled in cavity of brain.

4. Incised wound 3 cm x 1 cm bone deep, this wound

was close to the outer sides of the right eye.

5. Incised wound 2.5 cm x 1 cm x breathing duct deep

on the front of the neck.

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6. 12 cm x 3 cm size wound till nose contusion on the

neck.

The injuries on Kumari Anjali, aged about 2 years,

daughter of the deceased and accused respondent, are as

follows :-

1. 4 cm x 1.5 cm incised wound x deep till cavity of

skull, 4 cm above the right eye brow on the right

side of the skull. Under the injury, bone, brain

and brain membrane under the injury were found to be

cut. Blood mixed fluid was found in the cavity of

brain.

2. 2 cm x 1 cm incised wound deep till cavity of skull

above the left eyebrow on the left side of forehead.

Under the injury, bone, brain and brain membrane

were found to be cut.

3. Incised wound 2 cm x 0.5 cm muscle deep below the

chin.

4. 2 cm x 0.5 muscle deep incised wound on the level of

the thyroid cartilage in the front of the neck.

Apart from the deceased, the injuries on the injured

eye witness Priyanka, who was aged about six years when

the incident took place, are as follows :-

1. Towards right on the face in the front of the ear

contusion with red colour 6 cm x 45 cm.

2. On right eye and lower eyelid contusion 4.5 cm x 4

cm. :5:

3. Towards left on the face, below the eye contusion

with red colour 2 cm x 1.0 cm.

4. Right ear was bleeding and blood clot was present.

These injuries show the brutal manner in which the

deceased were killed, and injuries caused to Priyanka.

Apparently the throats of the deceased were cut with a

knife and their heads smashed with an axe.

It has come in evidence that the accused had taken

a house on rent and his wife Shikha (deceased) along

with her children were living in that house. On

07.07.2005 when the brother of Shikha (the complainant)

came to the said house he found the door closed. He

opened the door and found the dead bodies and also his

injured niece Priyanka who told him about the incident.

A blood stained axe was found in the room, while

the knife which was also used in committing these

horrible crimes had been concealed by the accused. The

shirt of the accused was blood stained. The accused

took the police to the sand where he had concealed a

polythene bag containing the knife which was used which

was blood stained, and some other items, including the

blood stained shirt.

We cannot imagine a more ghastly act and, we are,

prima facie, of the opinion that this falls in

the category of rarest of rare cases in which death

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sentence should have been given. The trial court, no

doubt, awarded death sentence to the respondent, but

the High Court reduced it to life sentence by

observing :-

"...But on the other side, it is to be considered as to what were the circumstances under which the said murders were caused. Accused Alok Verma was postgraduate in Sociology, having failed in getting a job. It seems that due to financial crisis, he entered into the criminal world, due to which he had to go to jail. He had been away from his wife and children for a long time, and in these circumstances, he became pessimistic and began to suspect his wife's character. Advice of his wife to stay away from criminal activities he could not accept. In absence of alternative, in such circumstances, his wife's threat to disclose all of his wrong acts made the situation worse and resulted in occurrence of the incident which does not appear to be committed under any preplan nor for any benefit, but has been caused due to hopelessness and doubts about the character of the wife wherein he was doubting that the children were not his. In the above circumstances considering the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Prakash Dhawal Khairnath (Patil) Vs. State of Maharashtra and State of Maharashtra Vs. Sandeep @ Babloo Prasad Khairnath (Patil) 2002 Supreme Court Cases (Criminal) 281 the conclusion arrived is that the present case is not fit for death penalty."

Prima facie, we find the reasoning of the High Court

to be strange. Merely because a person is in financial

crisis does not mean that he is at liberty to commit

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ghastly and gruesome murders. It appears that the wife

of the accused was of a noble character who tried to

reform him, but the accused rather than being reformed

committed these monstrous crimes. We fail to understand

how the High Court could reduce the death sentence in

these circumstances.

The celebrated Judge of the Allahabad High Court

Justice Mehmood quoted the following Urdu couplet in one

of his judgments while deciding a murder appeal :-

"Jo Chup Rahegi Zuban-e-khanjar,

Lahu pukarega asteen ka"

Issue notice to the respondent as to why the life

sentence awarded to him by the High Court should not be

enhanced to death sentence.

Issue notice also on the application for

condonation of delay.

.................................J. (MARKANDEY KATJU)

NEW DELHI; ................................J. SEPTEMBER 02, 2011 (CHANDRAMAULI KR. PRASAD)