In Brief
Three minor children aged 4, 6, and 8 years went missing after school in 2011. The accused, a labourer with a grudge against the father (whose brother had eloped with the accused's wife), was last seen with the children. Upon arrest, the accused led police to the bodies buried in a field. The Trial Court and High Court convicted him for murder and kidnapping, awarding death. The Supreme Court upheld the conviction based on compelling circumstantial evidence—last seen together, recovery of bodies, phone calls, and motive—but commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment (no remission for 25 years) considering the accused's emotional disturbance, young age, no prior crimes, and family circumstances, holding that the rarest-of-rare standard for capital punishment was not met.
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