By IANS,
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Thursday upheld death penalty to a man who killed his two minor nephews in Rajouri Garden area of west Delhi in 2003.
A division bench of Justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Indermeet Kaur confirmed the death penalty awarded by a lower court to Rajesh Kumar, 43, for killing his brother-in-law Mukesh Sethi’s sons July 28, 2003.
The bench ruled, “This a diabolic and cold-blooded murder and the accused by this act shaked the faith of the society.”
A city court had in 2007 awarded him death penalty by calling it “an act of depravity”.
Kumar, enraged after Sethi refused to lend him money, killed nine-month-old Harshit by hitting him on the floor and four-and-a-half-year-old Anshul by slitting his throat with a piece of broken glass.
The trial court judge in his sentence had noted, “He (Kumar) chose two innocent, hapless, defenceless children to express his displeasure on being refused a loan by their father. The deceased kids for whom accused was a respected elder in the family could only have expected help and protection but he became a predator.”
“The mitigating circumstances like the offence was committed under the influence of extreme mental and emotional disturbance and the fact that the accused was only 39-year-old at that time, seem to be insignificant in comparison to the aggravating circumstances,” the judge had said.