Top court stays convict’s hanging

New Delhi: The Supreme Court late on Wednesday night stayed the execution of the death sentence scheduled for Thursday morning of a man, Maganlal Barela, for beheading his five minor daughters over a property dispute with his two wives in MP.

The CJI had around midnight on Wednesday stayed the execution for a day. The order was immediately conveyed to jail authorities in Jabalpur. Barela was found guilty of beheading his five daughters.

The Supreme Court, late Wednesday night, stayed the execution of death sentence awarded to Maganlal Barelao, who was scheduled to be hanged on Thursday morning for beheading his five minor daughters over a property dispute with his two wives in Madhya Pradesh.

A bench headed by Chief Justice P. Sathasivam said that the stay on the execution of death sentence will continue till further orders and tagged the petition of the death row convict, Maganlal Barela, along with similar pleas of other prisoners on death row.

The stay was granted on Barela’s execution after members of the People’s Union for Democratic Rights ( PUDR) approached the Chief Justice on Wednesday night at his residence. The CJI had around midnight on Wednesday stayed the execution for a day. The order was immediately conveyed to jail authorities in Jabalpur.

Barela was found guilty of beheading his daughters Leela ( 6), Savita ( 5), Arti ( 4), Phool Kanwar ( 2) and Jamuna ( 1) to death with an axe following a dispute over property with his two wives on June 11, 2010 in Sehora district of Madhya Pradesh.

The police had charged him under Section 302 ( murder) of the IPC. He was to be executed at central jail in Jabalpur on Thursday morning after the trial court in Sehore had issued his “black warrant”.

The trial court had awarded capital punishment to Barela on February 3, 2011. President Pranab Mukherjee had rejected Barela’s plea for clemency on July 22, 2013 after dismissal of his pleas for converting capital punishment into life imprisonment by Madhya Pradesh high court ( Jabalpur bench) on September 14, 2011 and the Supreme Court on January 9, 2012.