Another death penalty for serial killer Chandrakant Jha

New Delhi: Serial killer Chandrakant Jha was on Wednesday sentenced to death by a Delhi court in another case of murder and dumping the body near Tihar Jail after beheading and chopping off body parts of the victim, as his case fell in the "rarest of rare" category.

Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau awarded death penalty to 46-year-old Jha, a native of Madhepura in Bihar, saying he does not deserve any punishment less than death.

"Seeing the gravity of the offence nothing less than death penalty can be given to him," the judge said.

After pronouncement of the verdict, Jha asked the court to fix a date for execution of the punishment.

"If I don't appeal, can you pick the date for execution of my death sentence," Jha said.

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To this the judge informed him that the court functions as per the law and if he does not file an appeal against this order, the court will anyhow send a reference to the Delhi High Court from where the death sentence will be confirmed.

Jha was on Wednesday sentenced to death in the last of the three murder cases in which he has been convicted. Earlier, the same court had sentenced him to death and life imprisonment till his death in two other cases of murder, in which also he had chopped off the head and limbs of the victims and had dumped the bodies outside Tihar Jail in New Delhi.

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In this case, Jha had murdered Anil Mandal in 2006 and had dumped his body outside the jail after chopping off the head and limbs.

The other two murder cases are also similar in which he had killed a man named Upender and another person whom Jha referred to as Dalip, both in 2007.

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According to the police, in order to conceal the identity of his victims and to destroy the evidence, Jha had thrown the head and other body parts of the victims at various places in New Delhi.

The court, on Tuesday, while awarding the death penalty to Jha had said that "he be hanged by the neck till he is dead" for taking away the life of 19-year-old Upender as his brutality showed he did not possess "basic humanness".

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The court had also said that "he is a menace to the society and the manner in which he has engaged himself into senseless serial killings shows that he is beyond reform".

The prosecution had said that he used to challenge the police to nab him by sending them letters which threatened that he would send similar gifts (bodies) after every 15 days.

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The court had convicted Jha for killing the three by relying on circumstantial and forensic evidence, including the views of the handwriting experts establishing the fact that the letters recovered near the bodies were written by him.

Jha was arrested in 1998 in connection with a murder case but was acquitted for want of evidence. In December 2007, a Delhi court had acquitted him after the police had failed to file a charge sheet against him in another murder case.

Jha was involved in 14 criminal cases, including seven murder cases, the court had noted in its earlier order.

The Delhi Police had filed separate charge sheets in each of the three cases.

The police had said Jha had invited his victims to stay with him and took good care of them. After some time, he would get annoyed with them and took offence to their activities.

Jha was caught by the police on May 20, 2007 near Mianwali Nagar in New Delhi and during interrogation, he had disclosed having killed several people and beheading the bodies and also of throwing their other body parts in various places in New Delhi, the court had noted in its order.

It had also noted that Jha himself had informed the police about the bodies lying in front of Tihar jail.