In Brief
In February 2012, Dhal Singh Dewangan murdered his wife and five daughters with an iron knife in their locked home in Chhattisgarh. The trial court and High Court sentenced him to death. A split verdict by the Supreme Court (2:1) upheld the conviction under Section 302 IPC based on circumstantial evidence—he was the sole male occupant, the house was locked, six bodies were found inside, the murder weapon lay near him, and his clothes bore human blood. However, the majority set aside capital punishment in favour of life imprisonment, holding that the State failed to prove he remained a threat to society or was beyond rehabilitation, and considering his lack of criminal history and socio-economic disadvantage.
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