SC confirms death penalty awarded to 'tantrik' couple

The Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty awarded to a 'tantrik' couple from Chhattisgarh, for killing a two-year-old boy as a human sacrifice perform during a religious ritual.

A bench of Justices R F Nariman, R Subhash Reddy and Surya Kant termed the case the rarest of the rare, wherein main accused Ishwari Lal Yadav and his wife Kiran Bai planned and committed the murder of two-year-old child Chirag, as a sacrifice to the God.

The court also noted an aggravating circumstance, that the couple was already convicted and sentenced to death for the similar murder of a six-year-old girl but the high court had commuted their punishment to the life term without remission.

“They were not possessed of the basic humanness, they completely lacked the psyche or mindset which can be amenable for any reformation,” the bench said, noting that the couple had three children of their own.

On November 23, 2010, two-year-old Chirag went missing from his home in Durg. The family members, who started looking for him, noted loud music being played in the house of Yadav. When they entered the house, they found mounds of freshly dug earth. On being questioned by the crowd, the convicts confessed that they had sacrificed Chirag, whose body and severed head were retrieved.

During the investigation, the couple, who claimed to be 'tantrik', confessed to killing another child 6-7 months before the incident.

The clothes and skeletal remains of the six-year-old girl they had sacrificed were recovered after their confession. In their appeal, the same bench confirmed the high court judgment sentencing them to life imprisonment for this killing.