They murdered entire families for land,loot or revenge

Dharampals execution has since been stayed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court,while those of the other eight it is not yet clear which of them have been granted mercy have been stayed by the Supreme Court.

A few of those denied mercy can be identified,but that breakup is not complete. The uncertainty was brought up in the petition that led to the Supreme Court stay on eight executions. The newspaper reports are… very confusing and it is not possible to know which seven out of the nine convict prisoners are now to be executed, said the petition,filed by an NGO.

A look at the nine convicts,and why they were sentenced to death:

Sonia & Sanjeev

Even babies not spared

Sonia,daughter of former Haryana MLA Relu Ram Punia,believed she was being cut off from the family property,said to be worth hundreds of crores. She and her husband Sanjeev murdered eight members of the family,including three children,clubbing them to death while they were sleeping in their farmhouse in Prabhuvala village of Hisar. Those killed were Sonias father,stepmother Krishna,sister Priyanka,stepbrother Sunil,his wife Shakuntala and their three children Lokesh,4,Shivani,2,and Preeti,who was a little over a month old.

It was August 23,2001,Sonias 19th birthday.

The trial court awarded death to the couple in 2004,the high court commuted it to life in 2005,and the Supreme Court upheld the original death sentence in 2007. If the sentence is carried out,Sonia will be the first woman to be hanged in independent India. She has a child,now about 11,who is being looked after by Sanjeevs family.

Sonia wrote to then President Pratibha Patil on February 17,2009,seeking an early decision on her mercy petition. President Pranab Mukherjee decided the petition among a batch he cleared recently.

Ambala jail sources say Sonia has gained weight and is over 90 kg now. She spends her time reading and listening to the radio. She meets her husband once a fortnight,as allowed under jail rules.

Gurmeet Singh

13 victims of his anger

His conviction is for killing 13 members of his family in Pilibhit in August 1986. It was a murder driven by anger; the family did not approve of Gurmeets friendship with Lakha Singh,and the two eventually committed the murders together. Lakha has since died.

The family suspected Lakha was conducting an affair with Gurmeets wife. With Gurmeet refusing to break the friendship,his father disowned him after giving him a share of his property.

Armed with swords,the two friends killed Gurmeets father Nazir Singh,his two brothers and their wives and eight children. Gurmeets brother Balwinder Singh survived,along with his nephew Paramjit and niece Veera Kaur,both then 10,while Balwinders wife Daljeet Kaur was away.

Gurmeet,now in Allahabads Naini Jail,was awarded death by the trial court in Shahjahanpur in 1992. The high court upheld the sentence in 1996,followed by the Supreme Court in 2005. He sent his mercy petition to the President in 2005.

Gurmeets wife Dalbeer Kaur,who was 22 when they married,today lives in isolation in a two-room house near the Nepal border. She reportedly keeps a sword and a large knife for protection.

Jafar Ali

Suspected one,killed six

He suspected his wife of an extramarital relationship and murdered not only her but their five children too,slitting their throats. After killing them in Etawah in 2002,he went to the police station and surrendered. Ali,a tempo driver,is originally from Shikohabad and was living with his in-laws in Etawah since his marriage to Roshanara.

The trial court in Etawah had sentenced him to death in July 2003. After his appeals failed,he sent his mercy plea to the President in 2004. He has been in Fatehgarh Central Jail since 2004.

Ramji Chauhan & Suresh

Butchered their own

They are brothers-in-law,Suresh having married Ramjis sister. Suresh,who hails from Varanasi,was involved in a property dispute with his brother Ramesh. In October 1996,Suresh and Ramji murdered Ramesh,his wife and their five children with knives and an axe in their home. The two are lodged in Allahabads Naini jail.

The trial court in Varanasi awarded them death in 1997,the high court upheld it in 2000,and the Supreme Court in 2001. They filed a review petition,too,which was rejected in 2001 by the Supreme Court. Suresh sent a mercy petition to the governor and the President on March 9,2001,while Ramji did so on April 30 that year. The President is understood to have rejected their mercy petition.

Sunder Singh

A family for a plot

In 1989,Sunder Singh killed five relatives his cousin Pratap Singh and his family in Meharghetti village of Bageshwar,now part of Uttarakhand. It was over a small plot of land that each cousin wanted as his share. Prataps family was sitting for dinner when Sunder reached the house with a sword and a can of petrol. He set the house on fire,killing Pratap,his wife Naruli and two others Prem Singh and Kamla. Prataps son Balwant escaped the flames but Sunder chased and killed him.

For a decade,Sunder eluded the police. He reportedly spent those years in various villages of Garhwal. He was finally arrested in 2000. He is said to have got into a quarrel with relatives,who then informed the police where to find him. Sunders wife Panguli and son Ranjit now live in Simkhet village,all links with Meharghetti severed.

Sunder is lodged in Haridwar jail.

Praveen Kumar

Gamblers desperation

A gambling addict desperate for money and hugely in debt,he was convicted of murdering four of his relatives for their jewellery to repay his loans and fund his passion for the single-digit lottery. About a year after his arrest,he escaped while being moved between prisons and started a new life under a new identity in Goa,where he married and had a child,before he was rearrested.

Praveen murdered his aunt,her two children and a grandchild in Mangalore on the night of February 23,1994. He had spent the night at his aunts home; the family had apparently received some jewellery following a visit by his uncle. Around midnight,Praveen killed the four with an axe: his fathers sister Appi Serigarti and her daughter Shakuntala,son Govind and granddaughter Deepika. Praveen was arrested a few days later and the ornaments he had stolen were found with him.

After his escape a year later,members of his aunts family put up a reward of Rs 1 lakh on his head. It was four years after he had begun his undercover life that he was outed by an informant.

The death sentence,awarded by a trial court,was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 2003,leading to his plea for clemency with the President.

Dharampal

Rape,then mass murder

He would have been hanged on Monday,April 15,but for a high court order that stayed the execution until May 6. Dharampal,initially convicted for raping a girl in 1991,was released on parole in 1993 and,four days later,hacked the girls parents and three siblings to death in their home. Unknown to Dharampal and his brother Nirmal Singh,the girl and her husband were on the terrace and saw them commit the murders. The brothers were sentenced to death before the Supreme Court in 1999 upheld Dharampals sentence and commuted Nirmals to life.

Dharampals mercy plea,initially moved in 1999 and rejected the following year,was re-submitted in 2005 but remained pending for years before the President rejected it this year. Of the seven cases that saw their mercy petitions decided by the President,Dharampals is the one that was not included in the subsequent Supreme Court stay. It was the Punjab and Haryana High Court that stayed Dharampals execution,following a petition by an advocate.

The Haryana government has made the arrangements. It has shortlisted three possible hangmen and bought the rope from Buxar,at Rs 1,100. It has shifted Dharampal from Rohtak jail to Ambala jail,where he will be hanged if the court clears it.

CHECKLIST

7 petitions

From 9 death-row convicts decided by President in March

1woman

Sonia,who along with husband murdered 8 of her family

48 murders

Committed by the 9 convicts in these 7 cases

13 victims

In one of these mass murders,commiTted by Gurmeet Singh & Lakha Singh (now dead)

5 petitions

Rejected by President

2 petitions

Granted; sentences commuted to life