Mysuru: A Sessions Court here has awarded the death penalty to a convict for the murder of his mother, pregnant wife and two children. The accused, Manikantha Swamy, hailing from Chamegowdanahundi village in Saraguru taluk, is a physically challenged man.
Usually, the court awards the death penalty only in the rarest of rare cases.
According to sources, Swamy murdered his wife along with his mother and two sons aged 4 and 1.5 years. On April 28, 2021, the wife was killed suspecting her character and she was pregnant at that time. At night while all of the victims were sleeping, the accused fled after beating them to death with a stick which he used to use for walking due to his disability, sources added.
Subsequently, the Saraguru police team arrested the accused, further conducted an investigation and filed a chargesheet to the sessions court.
The matter was heard in the 5th Additional District and Sessions Court of Mysuru. After examining the evidence, Judge Gururaj Somakkalvar pronounced Manikantha Swamy as the convict, sentenced him to death and imposed a penalty of Rs 5,000.
The case was further sent to the District Legal Services Authority to provide appropriate compensation to the mother of the deceased. On behalf of the Karnataka government, Prosecutor B E Yogeshwar argued the matter.
