Servant who burnt five people alive to be hanged

A domestic servant who killed five members of a Ranchi official's family four years ago has been sentenced to be hanged on Sep 27.

The Jharkhand High Court sentenced the servant, Ajay Pal, a resident of West Bengal, to death.

Ajay Pal was working in the house of Dhirendra Kumar, who was then conservator of forests. He was reportedly unhappy with the behaviour of Dhirendra's wife, who used to scold him over trivial issues.

On June 2, 2003, when Dhirendra was away from Ranchi, Pal killed the five who were in the house - Dhirendra's wife, his son Harshit, niece Anmol, nephew Ayan Kumar and another domestic help Kaleshwar Mahto.

He first mixed poison with their meal and burnt them alive by sprinkling petrol in the house.

The incident had led to an outcry and the state government handed over the inquiry to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which conducted a narco analysis on Ajay.

On Aug 28, Jharkhand High Court upheld the special CBI court judgement to award Ajay the death sentence. The CBI court had awarded the death sentence in April this year.

The CBI court fixed the hanging date on Wednesday after the public prosecutor informed the court that the accused had neither appealed to the Supreme Court against the high court order nor sought clemency from the governor and president.

The special CBI court fixed the hanging date on Sep 27.

Public prosecutor Shiva Kumar Kaka pleaded that in case the high court judgement was not challenged in the apex court, the accused should be hanged within 28 days.

The CBI court has directed the authorities of Birsa Munda Central jail to arrange for the hanging. There is no facility for hanging in Ranchi jail and there is no hangman in Jharkhand.

'We have sought a map of the hanging platforms of different jails. It will take some time to prepare the hanging platform,' said a jail official.

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*For more information on the death penalty visit:

FOR: http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/2002/06-03-2002/vo18no11_fallacies.htm

AGAINST: http://www.aclu.org/DeathPenalty/DeathPenaltyMain.cfm.

*DISUCSSION QUESTIONS:

What is your opinion on the death penalty?

Does the death penalty constitute ‘cruel and unusual punishment’, which is illegal according to the US Constitution?

Do you think that this man should receive the death penalty?

Opponents of the death penalty in the United States say that those sentenced to death most often do not have the money to access better legal advisement than the court appointed defender. Do you think that this makes the death penalty in the United States unfair?
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Ranchi, Sep 6 2007