JUDGMENT

Markandey Katju, J. —“Qareeb hai yaaron roz-e- mahshar, Chupega kushton ka khoon kyonkar, Jo chup rahegi zubaan-e- khanjar, Lahu pukaaregaa aasteen ka” - Ameer Minai

1. Heard Shri Jaspal Singh, learned senior counsel for the appellant and learned counsel for the State of Maharashtra for the respondent. This is an appeal by special leave against the judgment of the Bombay High Court dated 26.6.2006, which has confirmed the death sentence of the appellant given by the learned Sessions Judge dated 19.3.2005.

2. The accused is a businessman. He was a married man having one son and two daughters. He was married with the deceased Kanwaljeet Kaur about 25 to 27 years prior to the incident dated 10.4.2003. He had a son Amandeep Singh aged about 20 years and two daughters viz. Neeti and Taniya, aged about 22 years and 13 years respectively. All of them were allegedly killed by the accused in the early hours of the morning of 10.4.2003 by pouring petrol on their persons and setting them on fire.

3. Earlier the accused had lived at Ludhiana. However, it appears that he suffered business losses there, and so he shifted to Mumbai with his family and started residing in Jyotsna Building