Death for Palwal spree killer: Victims satisfied with verdict

Families of six victims who were bludgeoned to death with an iron rod by a former subdivisional officer in Palwal in January 2018 said they are satisfied with the Palwal district courts awarding him the death sentence on Tuesday

Families of six victims who were bludgeoned to death with an iron rod by a former subdivisional officer in Palwal in January 2018 said they are satisfied with the Palwal district courts awarding him the death sentence on Tuesday.kay

Palwal , India - Jan. 6, 2018: File photo of 43-year-old Naresh Dhankar who left six people dead in Haryana’s Palwal on January 01 when he displayed his violent streak, in Palwal, India, on Saturday, January 6, 2018. (Photo by Burhaan Kinu/ Hindustan Times) (Burhaan Kinu/HT PHOTO)

The convict, Naresh Dhankar, was an SDO with the Haryana government’s agricultural department in Bhiwani after retiring from the army in 2003.

On the night of January 2, he entered a hospital in Palwal with an iron pipe and first bludgeoned to death a woman attending to her sick relative outside the ICU. He then escaped from there and bludgeoned to death five more people, including three security guards of the hospital, before making his way to his wife’s parental home, from where he was eventually arrested while trying to attack more people.

All victims were found dead in a 400 metre radius of the Palwal city police station. Dhankar was caught by a police team when he was reportedly chasing his seventh victim on the streets outside his in-laws’ home.

On Wednesday, the families of the six deceased persons said they are satisfied with the verdict.

Kamla Sharma (47), a housewife and a mother of three children, said she was waiting for this day ever since her husband was brutally murdered by Dhankar. “My children have slept hungry many times as we had no money after my husband’s death on January 2, 2018. He worked in a milk products company and was walking towards the bus stand when the convict attacked him with an iron rod. I can never forget that night,” she said.

Sharma said she had no financial support except for a monthly pension of ₹ 2,000 from her husband’s company. With that amount, she had to pay the rent and school fees of her children and feed her children for the entire month. “Our lives had become miserable. My children had to quit studies and start working to support the family. This man snatched my children’s childhood. Awarding him death has given us some relief,” she said.

Taslim Khan, a lineman of Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN), lost his sister-in-law on January 2. She \was sleeping on a bench outside the ICU and became Dhankar’s first victim. “My wife and 10 days old son were admitted to the ICU and were critical. My sister-in-law had left her one-year old son at home with her six other children to take care of my wife. I was downstairs to get medicines when she was attacked,” he said.

Khan said when he returned, he was shocked to find his sister-in-law lying dead in a pool of blood. “I went around and saw Dhankar hiding in the bathroom. He had no remorse and was smiling. Till date, my wife and I feel guilty and blame ourselves for her death. The decision to hang him has brought some measure of closure,” he said.

The families had no money to engage a private lawyer and took the support of District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) and a public prosecutor who helped them win the case.

Ran Singh Tewatia, counsel of victims, said it took five years, two months and 18 days to get justice for these families. “We presented 52 witnesses from the families, ambulance driver, hospital staff, police personnel and some attendants. Dhankar had used three mobile phones and was seen in CCTV footage with the iron rod, based on technical surveillance his presence was proved and he was held guilty,” he said.

While awarding the convict the maximum sentence, the court of additional district and sessions judge Prashant Rana said, “Every life has equal sanctity and the crime of murder is the most serious crime. It becomes yet graver when it is a multicide and gravest when the multiple victims are all totally innocent, helpless and vulnerable.”

“Everyone feels mentally and emotionally disturbed at times, but that does not give anyone licence to kill fellow human beings,” the judge further said.

“Every murder is a violation of Article 21 of the Constitution of India, which is the soul and life source of all the statutes. It guarantees every citizen of the nation that his or her life and liberty would not be taken by anyone, except in due course of law. A convict committing murder, blatantly violates this constitutional guarantee and safeguard. It is a breach of the sanctity of the Constitution. The same must not be left without adequate punishment, if constitutional democracy, is to survive,” judge Rana said