INDIA: COURT AWARDS DEATH PENALTY TO EIGHT IN TRIPLE MURDER

A local court in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura district, India, awarded capital punishment to eight people and life sentence to 27 in a two-decade-old triple murder carried out on the orders of a village panchayat, a lawyer said.
Additional district and session judge A.K. Upadhyay pronounced the judgment in the murder of a young couple - Roshni and Brijendra - and their friend Ram Kisan.
"The judgment comes a day after (Nov 15) 35 people were held guilty by the court in the triple murder case," prosecution lawyer Shiv Shankar told reporters in Mathura, some 300 km from Lucknow.
The three were killed in March 1991 following an order of a panchayat of the Mehrana village.
The panchayat had passed the order after Roshni eloped with Brijendra and later returned to the villager after marrying him with the help of Ram Kisan, police said.
"All the three were hanged on the directions of the village Panchayat," said Shankar.