the additional district and sessions judge, in India...

the additional district and sessions judge, in India, pronounced death sentence for Ravindra Verma, 45, on charge of battering five of his children to death in Vijay Nagar four years ago. The judge Arun Chandra Srivastava described this as a 'rarest of rare case' and said the man killed his children in a barbaric manner without any provocation. The convict had also injured his wife, who later survived and became the prime witness. Later, the woman turned hostile and told the court that her husband was "innocent".
The court also imposed Rs 1 lakh fine on the convict. On June 8, 2009, the bodies of the five children were found in their home in Rosy Colony. Police was told that the father, after a quarrel with his wife, battered his five children with a "silbatta" (stone used to crush grains and spices).
The five childre, Anjali, 13, Preeti, 11, Priyanka, 9, Devraj, 5 and Yuvraj, 9 months, were found badly battered to death. Ten witnesses were produced in court by the prosecution, but the children's mother Durgawati later changed her statement.