Man gets life for killing father to 'appease' deity

A city court has sentenced a 25-year-old man to death for butchering his father to 'appease' supernatural forces. Jitender, a resident of Nabi Karim believed it would help in his reconciliation with his wife. The accused chopped his father's body into several small pieces as ritual sacrifice to a deity in 2008. HT reports.

A city court has sentenced a 25-year-old man to death for butchering his father to 'appease' supernatural forces. Jitender, a resident of Nabi Karim believed it would help in his reconciliation with his wife. The accused chopped his father's body into several small pieces as ritual sacrifice to a deity in 2008.

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Additional Sessions Judge RK Gauba termed the act as "rarest of the rare", warranting nothing less than the death penalty. On March 12, 2008, Jitender bought a knife and killed his father the next day in order to appease the deity.

The judge said, "The brutal murder of the father, followed by the mutilation of his body, all in the name of human sacrifice, to appease the deity for his own welfare, adds a grave dimension to this case and leaves no scope for escape from the conclusion that it is a case falling in the category of rarest of rare, meriting the extreme penalty".

Public Prosecutor RK Tanwar submitted that this case of murder, involving human sacrifice, was extremely barbaric and heinous. Meanwhile, defence counsel YD Sharma argued that the convict had no criminal record and deserved to be treated sympathetically.

The court however, said, "The manner in which the convict butchered his father and hacked off his head and organs for no conceivable fault of the victim, is figuratively speaking, the gravest case of breach of trust." The court held Jitender guilty of murder under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on him.