MANGALORE: A Puttur court on Tuesday handed the death punishment to a man for murdering four persons, including his two children.
The Puttur fifth additional court described the case “rarest of the rare” before sentencing him to death. Last week, he was found guilty of murdering his children, mother-in-law and sister-in-law.
Public prosecutor K Shivaprasad Alva said judge TJ Shivashakare Gowda said the convict, Ramesh Naika, an employee of a public sector bank, did not deserve anything less than death penalty.
According to police, Naika had killed his two children — Kruthika and Bhuvan — by pushing them into a pond on October 16, 2010. A day before, the chargesheet said he had murdered his mother-in-law Saraswathi and sister-in-law Savitha in Tumkur and hidden their bodies in a water tank.
Naika had reportedly opposed Savitha’s relationship with a person from a different community, and the rest of the family had aligned with the girl. His wife Sundari, too, decided to back her sister. During investigations, it was learnt that Naika had helped Savitha study and land a job. When Savitha fell in love with a colleague, he got angry. When none of his family members, including his wife, supported him in his bid to scupper the match, Naika decided to go on a murder spree.
Naika’s wife Sundari, who was present in the court, expressed happiness about the judgment.
