Rajesh Hembram of Badakundisara village under Jamankira police station of Sambalpur district in Orissa was sentenced to death by the Sambalpur district and sessions court on Friday for killing his grand daughter Veronica in a sacrifice ritual in which he offered her blood to Goddess Earth for a bumper harvest.
Veronica Kandulana, the 8-year-old offspring of Rajesh Hembram's daughter was staying with her maternal grand parents and was studying in Class VI of Kadipal Upper Primary School, when she met a bloody fate.
On 26th April, 2009 Akshya Trutiya day, while Veronica was studying at home Rajesh sent his wife to the nearby market to bring some
"Handia "(Country liquor).
When his wife returned after about half an hour she found Rajesh had severed Veronica's head with an axe and had collected her blood in an utensil for mixing it with seeds and sow in the field in order to get a bumper harvest.
Rajesh had put Veronica's body in a gunny bag for disposal. Seeing this ghastly scene, Rajesh's wife raised alarm and immediately Rajesh was overpowered by a group of youths who handed him over to the police.
Since Veronica's father had died earlier and her mother was working in Jharkhand, she was staying with her maternal grand parents to pursue her studies. She had never expected that her own grand father would kill her in a bloody sacrifice ritual to appease " Dharani Peni " (Goddess Earth).
Rajesh was not repentant when he was arrested. He confessed that he had planned to sacrifice his wife, but later had changed his mind and killed Veronica.
On Friday, Saroj Kumar Panda, Additional district Judge of Kuchinda in Sambalpur district, pronounced his judgement awarding death sentence to Rajesh.
The court observed that the convict had no inhibition in committing such a brutal act of destroying his own blood to such extent that he has made one of his branches extinct. “In spite of being the protector, he become the destroyer of an innocent child. If such horrendous act as engineered and executed by the convict in a well planned manner happens, public order in society will be destroyed”, the court observed.
The judge said: “The convict committed such an offence without any provocation and it is nothing but a cold blooded murder of an innocent girl. The most pitiable fact of this case is that the convict committed the murder with a hard heart at a time when his grand daughter was taking her meal. This is nothing but a treacherous act”.
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