Patna: Authorities in Bihar began preparations for hanging a man after President Ram Nath Kovind rejected the mercy plea of a death row convict.
The convict faces death for burning alive seven members of a family by locking them inside their home and setting it afire a decade ago.
The man identified as Jagat Rai, is currently lodged in the Shaheed Jubba Sahni Central Jail in Bhagalpur, an eastern Bihar town where the last hanging had taken place in 1996.
Now that the mercy plea has been turned down by the President, the court which handed down the death penalty will sign the death warrant, also known as “Black Warrant” mentioning the date and time of hanging, as per procedures.
Rai, a resident of Rampur-Shyampur village in Vaishali district, had burnt all the family members of his rival Bijendra Mahato to death just when the latter had registered a case against the former for stealing his buffalo. Rai threatened Mahato with dire consequences if he didn’t withdraw the case but the latter failed to pay heed to this threat.
On the fateful night of December 31, 2006 while Mahato along with his family members were sleeping in their thatched house, Rai along with others sprinkled inflammable liquid over the roof, locked the house from outside and set it on fire.
As the house went up in flames, Rai and his accomplices stood guard outside the house and didn’t allow the members to flee, resulting in the death of Mahato’s wife Baby Devi and their five children while Mahato succumbed to injuries after recording his statement before the police. Reports said although villagers watched the ghastly crime from their homes, none dared to come to the family’s rescue.
Soon after the incident, a local court sentenced the main accused to death after which he moved the Patna High Court but got no relief. Subsequently, Rai approached the Supreme Court in appeal but the top court too upheld the death sentence, terming it as a “rare of rare” case.
With all options running out, Rai later moved a mercy petition before the President but this too got finally rejected. This was the first mercy petition decided by Kovind after he took over as Indian President.
