INDIA: GUJARAT MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR KILLING THREE FAMILY MEMBERS

January 30, 2023:

A court in Gujarat's Banaskantha district on 25 January 2023 convicted the accused in a 2019 triple murder case - all the victims being members of his family - and sentenced him to death.
Additional District Judge, Deodar, K.S. Hirpara said that considering the testimony of eye-witnesses and the gruesome crime committed by Bhikkhaji Thakor, it has considered it as "a rarest of rare case" and hence, handed down capital punishment.
Additional Public Prosecutor V. Thakor told reporters that the court has appreciated eyewitnesses' testimonies, and forensic evidence. He said it felt that the accused had not only murdered his mother Jabiben, and wife Jebarben but also one and half year old son Jignesh, who had little to do with spat between the accused and his mother.
Providing a brief history of the case, he said that Thakor was living with his mother, wife, and son in Bhakadiyal village. In 2019, he was not working to meet the financial needs of the family, so his mother scolded him. This irked him and in a fir of anger, he killed his mother, wife and son with an axe.
When family member saw the act, Bhikhaji's sister-in-law tried to intervene and stop him, he hit her with an axe on her spine, and she was lucky to survive. Court has sentenced Thakor to a life term for an attempt to murder his sister-in-law, the Additional Public Prosecutor said.