By IANS,
New Delhi : The Supreme Court has confirmed the death sentence to a Kerala man for “murdering in cold blood” six members of a family and looting them to realise his dream of going to Saudi Arabia.
A bench of Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice Lokeshwar Singh Panta confirmed the death sentence on M.A. Antony alias Antappan, who was convicted earlier, dismissing his appeal against the capital punishment.
The court confirmed the death sentence in a ruling delivered Wednesday, but released Thursday evening.
The apex court endorsed the Kerala High Court ruling, which confirmed an Ernakulam court verdict awarding death sentence to Antony for six murders committed by him on the night of Jan 26-27, 2001.
Agreeing with the prosecution, the bench ruled, “All these murders were cold-blooded, planned and executed with precision, and the appellant Antony before leaving the scene of occurrence, ensured that there is no trace of life left in them.”
As per the prosecution version, Antony single-handedly killed six members of a family of Aluva town in Ernakulam district on the fateful night to fund his dream to go abroad for a better future.
Antony’s victims were the town’s Manjooran House residents Augustine, his wife Mary, their children Divyamol and Jesmon, besides Augustine’s mother Rahel and sister Kochrani.
Antony was known to the Manjooran House family. He visited them on the fateful evening when the couple and their children were readying to go for a film show at a local cinema hall.
As Augustine left for the show, Antony stayed back and first hacked to death his mother and sister and then waited for the couple and their children to return. He then killed them in the same brutal manner.