SC stays execution of two death convicts till further orders

The Supreme Court has stayed till further orders the execution of death sentence awarded to two convicts for murdering their brother and his entire family of seven, including three minors, in Jharkhand in 2007.

A bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur granted liberty to the petitioners to amend the ground taken in the review petition within four weeks after the relevant records of trial court are received.

"Needless to say that the execution of the death sentence awarded to the petitioners shall remain stayed pending further orders from this Court," the bench also comprising Justice R K Agrawal and Arun Mishra said.
 

Senior advocate C U Singh appearing for petitioners said that trial court record, essential for disposal of the review petition, have to be summoned again as it has been sent back after the dismissal of the main appeal in 2014.

Senior advocate A K Sinha, appearing for Jharkhand, did not oppose the prayer of petitioners after which the bench directed summoning of the trial court records.

The bench posted the matter for further hearing on January 16 next year.

The apex court had on October 9, 2014 upheld the death sentence awarded to Mofil Khan and Mobarak Khan and said that "the manner in which the crime was committed on the helpless members of a family including children of tender age and a child with locomotive disability and design of the accused- appellants to eliminate the whole family justifies the grant of death sentence".

The court had said "the principle of proportionality of sentence" for the vile act of slaughtering eight lives, including four innocent minors and a physically infirm child, whereby an entire family was exterminated, "we cannot resist from concluding that the depravity of the appellant's offence would attract no lesser sentence than the death penalty".

The trial court had awarded death sentence to both the accused and the Jharkhand High Court had upheld the sentence.

On June 23, President Pranab Mukherjee had also rejected the mercy pleas of both Mofil and Mobarak.

The duo had killed Haneef Khan with sharp-edged weapons while the latter was offering prayers at a mosque in Makandu village under Lohardaga district of Jharkhand. After killing him, they murdered his wife and his six sons.