A local court in Warangal on Wednesday awarded death sentence to Sanjay Kumar Yadav of Bihar, after convicting him of killing nine persons, including a three-year-old boy, five months ago.
The 24-year-old convict, who was brought to the First Additional District and Sessions Judge court hall amidst tight security, appeared unfazed as Judge K. Jaya Kumar pronounced the verdict. The death sentence was conveyed to him in Hindi through a translator.
The victims, all of them members of migrant workers’ families, were killed on the intervening night of May 20 and 21 this year in Gorrekunta village of Geesukonda mandal in Warangal district.
Mamnoor Assistant Commissioner of Police G. Shyam Sunder, who investigated the case, filed the chargesheet within a month. Police accused Sanjay of killing the nine persons to cover up the murder of a woman Rafika, who he threw out of a running train near Tadepallygudem after giving her sleeping pills.
“A separate murder case was registered by the Government Railway Police of A.P. against Sanjay for this. The chargesheet is yet to be filed in this case,” Public Prosecutor (PP) Mokila Satyanarayana Goud said.
Sanjay is also facing another criminal case registered by the Warangal police under Section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 5 and 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
This case was filed after investigators found evidence that he had sexually assaulted Rafika’s minor daughter and impregnated her. A chargesheet was filed and trial in the case is likely to begin soon.
Mr. Satyanarayana Goud said Rafika was a close relative of Nisha Alam, one of the nine victims. Nisha knew that Rafika, who had three children, was in a live-in relationship with Sanjay.
Sanjay decided to eliminate Rafika when she began to pressure him to marry her, Mr. Goud said.
After throwing her from a running train in March at Tadepallygudem, he returned to Warangal. Nisha Alam became suspicious as he evaded answers to queries about Rafika. When she threatened to approach the police, Sanjay decided to eliminate her and her family members, the PP said.
Sleeping pills in food
He mixed sleeping pills in the food prepared for the birthday party of Nisha Alam’s son.
After consuming it, Nisha Alam, five of her family members and three other migrant workers fell unconscious. Sanjay dumped them in a nearby well, killing all of them, the PP said.
