Killing of nine people 24-year old sentenced to death by Telangana court in speedy trial

Hyderabad, Oct 28 (PTI) In one of the fastest trials and
that too amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a 24-year old man was on
Wednesday sentenced to death by a court in Telangana in the
sensational case of murder of nine people, including six
members of a family, in Warrangal in May this year.
Warrangal First Additional District and Sessions Judge K
Jayakumar awarded the capital punishment to Sanjay Kumar Yadav
after holding him guilty under IPC section 302 (murder) and
other relevant provisions.
According to police, Yadav, a native of Bihar, killed the
nine people on May 20 by mixing sleeping pills in their food
and then dumped them in a well to cover up the murder of a
woman with whom he was having a live-in relationship.
The judgement was delivered in five months and six days
since the date of the offence and as many as 67 prosecution
witnesses were examined during the trial held physically as
per the lockdown guidelines in view of COVID-19, public
prosecutor M Satyanarayana Goud said.
The chargesheet in the case was filed within a month of
the killings and the trial was conducted with the presence of
just five people -- the Judge, the public Prosecutor, defence
counsel, bench clerk and the accused on most days besides the
witnesses as and when their presence was required, he said.
Pronouncing the verdict, the judge observed that the
convict committed a heinous crime and termed the case as
rarest of the rare and therefore, imposed the capital
punishment, Goud said.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Shyam Sunder told PTI
"Within one month, the charge sheet was filed with sufficient
material and documentary evidence and extensive use of
technology".
Mystery had shrouded the recovery of the nine bodies
from the well on the premises of a gunny bag manufacturing
unit in Gorrekunta village of Warangal, sending shock waves in
the town.
However, the police cracked the case and arrested Yadav
on May 25.
Yadav, who had been living in Warangal for the last six
years, had mixed sleeping pills in the food taken by the
nine, and after they fell unconscious dragged each of them
and threw them into the well, police had said.
The bodies of the four people -- head of the family, 48-
year-old Maqsood from West Bengal who had migrated to
Warangal over 20 years ago, his wife, daughter and three-year
old grandson -- were retrieved from the well on May 21.
A day later, the bodies of Maqsoods two sons, a friend
and two other men, employed in the unit, were fished out
of the well.
Investigations and CCTV footage led police to Yadav who
told them that he had murdered the nine as Maqsoods wife
threatened to complain to the police about her missing niece
whom he had killed on March 6 this year.
He had killed the woman after she came to know about him
getting closer to her daughter, the prosecution had said.
Later, he returned to Warangal and told the womans
children that she had gone to her relatives house in West
Bengal.
However, Maqsoods wife did not believe it and threatened
to complain to the police.
Fearing that he might be caught, he planned to eliminate
the couple.
After coming to know that May 20 was the birthday of one
of the sons of Maqsood, he reached their place and gave food
mixed with sleeping pills to the family members and the
three others and threw them into the well once they were fast
asleep. PTI VVK NVG
VS VS

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)