Hyderabad, Jun 8 (PTI) A local court on Monday awarded death sentence to the son and daughter of a retired railway employee, while sentencing his wife to life imprisonment for his murder in 2019.
The murder of the 70-year-old was committed by the family members to allegedly claim his pension benefits and they administered a plant-based poison in his food and later chopped off his body parts and kept them in buckets inside their house unable to dispose them off.
The Principal District Judge court, Malkajgiri found the accused persons guilty under relevant sections of IPC and awarded capital punishment to the man’s son (47) and daughter (36) while his wife (65) was sentenced to undergo life imprisonment.
According to prosecution, the deceased served as a goods train driver till the year 2000 and took voluntary retirement on medical grounds.
The three accused conspired to eliminate him for claiming his pension and also house for their lavish spending.
They administered the plant poison through food to the elderly man on August 15, 2019 and he was found dead a day later.
The accused later cut his body into pieces and kept it in six buckets at their house for disposal in order to cause disappearance of evidence.
However, after foul smell started emanating from the house, some local residents on suspicion entered the house on August 18, 2019 and found the human remains. They later informed the police.
The trio was arrested on August 21, 2019.
According to police, the accused persons always used to quarrel with the deceased over trivial issues.
The victim’s son was unemployed and demanded money from his father for his lavish spending while his daughter was also unemployed.
The three accused insisted money from deceased and even wanted entire pension to be transferred to them. However, he did not accept their proposal as they were spending amounts lavishly.
They then decided to eliminate him, police said.
They searched material online on how to murder without using force and came to know about the poisonous impact of “Datura powder”.
On August 4, 2019, his son went to nearby bushes and brought three fruits and gave it to his mother and sister, who in turn made a powder. On trial basis, they mixed the fruit powder in the food of the deceased and after consuming it he went into a semi-conscious state.
On August 15, 2019, the accused again mixed the said fruits powder in food and served it to the elderly man. After consuming it he became unconscious. The next morning, the accused noticed that he had died.
As per their plan, the accused cut the elderly man’s body into pieces in order to dump it in a ‘nala’ or drainage and report the incident as missing, police added.
There was a marriage function in front of their house and movement of public, due to which they were unable to dump the body parts and used scent and perfumes.
However, foul smell emanating from their house gave them in, police added. PTI VVK SJR VVK SA
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