Main accused in Munot couple murder case to be hanged

Aurangabad, April 8:

Aurangabad division bench of Bombay High Court comprising Justice V K Jadhav and Justice S B Kulkarni changed the punishment of life imprisonment of the main accused Shivkumar Ramsundar Saket in the dacoity and murder of old couple Munot, to hanging till death while retained the lifer to the other five accused.

Ahmednagar session court in this matter had sentenced six accused in life imprisonment. The bench rejected the and observed that the incident is 'rarest of the rare' changed the sentence of imprisonment of the main accused to hanging.

Shivkumar Saket worked as a guard in the bungalow of trader Ramesh Munot (60) at Ahmednagar. On the day of incident, Munot's son and daughter-in-law had gone to Chandrapur to attend a marriage ceremony. Saket, with his five accomplice conducted a dacoity on Munot's bungalow on December 3, 2007. They tied the guard Sumit Tiwari to a pole. They killed Ramesh Munot and his wife Chitra Munot by stabbing.

Munot's nephew Sunil Munot lodged a complaint with the police.

The Ahmednagar sessions court sentenced 6 accused to life imprisonment on October 21, 2013.

Additional public prosecutor Shashibhushan P Deshmukh brought to the notice of the bench that Shivkumar Saket was the kingpin in the dacoity and murder. He hatched a plat and killed the old couple. It is the rarest of the rare case and hence requested the bench that the accused should be hanged.

The bench sentenced hanging to Saket while upholded the life imprisonment of other accused Shailendrasingh Thakur, Rajeshsingh Thakur, Sandeep Patel and Verundsingh Thakur.