Jharkhand HC upholds death sentence of man who killed four after watching crime thrillers

The Jharkhand High Court on Monday upheld the death sentence of a man who killed four people including his wife and daughters, emulating methods used in crime thrillers he had watched on OTT platforms.

Holding the murders of four to be "horrendous and rarest of rare", a division bench of Justices Rongon Mukhopadhyay and Arun Kumar Rai passed their verdict, confirming the death sentence granted to Deepak Kumar by the special judge of a fast track court in Jamshedpur on 1 April 2023.

Kumar, a resident of Jamshedpur and employed in a private conglomerate, was married to Veena Devi and had two minor daughters. Special public prosecutor Vineet Kumar Vashisht said Kumar was inspired by two OTT crime thrillers and murdered them using a hammer.

On 12 April 2021, Kumar went to his wife while she was sleeping and killed her with a hammer. He then went to the bedroom of his daughters whom he hit with the hammer and smothered them with a pillow.

After the three murders, Kumar was waiting to meet his business partner, Roshan, whom he had invited for lunch. Kumar also had plans to kill Roshan due to business rivalry, Vashisht said.

However, in the meantime, the private tutor of Kumar's younger daughter came to the house to take her class. The tutor raised an alarm after finding the bodies and Kumar throttled her to death. He also sexually assaulted her.

Later in the day, when Roshan along with his brother and wife came for lunch, Kumar assaulted the two male guests with the hammer but was overpowered. Roshan's wife ran outside the house and cried for help while Kumar fled.

It was found during the investigation that Kumar had taken and sold his wife's jewellery. After receiving the proceeds of the sale, he deleted his social media accounts and fled on his motorbike. The case was registered against Kumar by his brother-in-law, and the police arrested him in Dhanbad tracing his bank transactions.