For first of three murders, 46-year-old gets life in jail

Sentencing him in the first of the three murder cases he has been convicted, a Delhi court on Monday awarded life imprisonment to Chandrakant Jha, making clear that he will have to spend the rest of his life in jail.

The court said Jha “followed a definite pattern” in the multiple murders: he “killed the victims by decapitating their heads… chopped their various body parts… threw the decapitated bodies… outside the Central Jail, Tihar and scattered dismembered body parts at various places around Delhi”.

Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau sentenced Jha, a 46-year-old from Madhepura in Bihar who worked as a fruit-seller, after finding him guilty of the murder of 25-year-old Dalip.

Commenting on the “exceptional depravity and extreme brutality” of the murders, the court said the post-mortem report had “confirmed” that “death in this case was a result of decapitation” and not a case where the head was cut off after death.

Jha has also been convicted of the murder of two other men, Upendra and Amit. For these, separate sentences will be pronounced on Tuesday and Wednesday. Senior Public Prosecutor P K Verma said the prosecution has demanded the death penalty for Jha for “aggravated offence” in the remaining two cases.

In Dalip’s case, his dismembered torso was left outside Gate No.1 of Tihar Jail on May 18, 2007. His arms and genitals were found outside the Tis Hazari court in a carton the next morning. The police received a phone call — it was later proved to have been made by Jha — informing them about the body outside Tihar. The police also came across legs near the Kishanganj nullah. After the arrest of Jha, a skull was recovered from the banks of the Yamuna.

In its order, the court pulled up the police for not having been able to identify Dalip and failing to trace his family. No formal identification was done of the body and the court records name him “Dalip” only because Jha identified him as such. The police have been directed to preserve DNA evidence from the body and “ensure that coordinated steps are taken along with counterparts in Bihar” to trace the family of the victim.

Noting that the “intent of the convict was to cause public outrage”, the court observed that Jha made PCR calls in two cases to inform police about the bodies, and also wrote letters, daring the police to catch him.

In a three-page letter found with Dalip’s body, Jha threatened to “send similar gifts” to the police every 15 days.

Jha had pleaded for leniency, saying he has five minor daughters, the oldest of whom is about 14 years old. He also said his family is completely dependent on him. But the court said he is a “mission-oriented and task-oriented serial killer whose only motive/mission is to expose, mock and challenge the police”.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/for-first-of-three-murders-46yearold-gets-life-in-jail/1069462/0

Serial killer who dumped bodies outside Tihar held guilty

An alleged serial killer, who dumped the bodies of his victims outside Tihar Jail after cutting off their heads and limbs, was on Thursday held guilty of murder and destruction of evidence by a city court.

Additional sessions judge Kamini Lau held 44-year-old Chandrakant Jha, a vegetable seller, guilty of the murder of three men in 2006-07 on the basis of forensic and circumstantial evidence. Likely to be sentenced on February 2, Jha faces the prospect of the death penalty due to the nature of his offences.

According to the prosecution, Jha strangled three of his employees — Amit, Upendra and Dilip — after he “got annoyed” over “petty matters”.

Jha was arrested in May 2007 after the murder of Dilip. Police said he had killed the three men, who were all his employees and in the age group 20-25 years, because they had “displeased” him.

“Initially, he gave them total protection and won their confidence. But during their stay with him, he took offence to their behaviour like drinking, eating meat, womanising, etc,” police said at the time of his arrest.

The prosecution said that Jha would “tie the hands and feet of the victims before strangulating them”. He would dismember the body and throw the pieces at various places.

Police had filed three separate chargesheets against Jha in the murder cases of Amit, Dilip and Upendra.

The bodies of Amit, killed in 2006, and Upendra and Dilip, murdered a year later, were thrown outside Gate No. 1 of Tihar Jail along with letters, daring the police to catch him.

“Letters found with two of the bodies challenged the system and the police. He said ‘catch me if you possibly can’ and that he would continue to kill,” police told the court.

Jha also left a severed limb of one of his victims outside the Tis Hazari court premises in 2007. The decomposed head of another victim was recovered from the Yamuna river by police at his instance later.

Forensic examination of the room in which he admitted to have killed his victims found blood samples which were later matched with the bodies of his victims.

The police also found that his mobile phone location records placed him at the locations where the bodies were thrown outside Tihar Jail.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/serial-killer-who-dumped-bodies-outside-tihar-held-guilty/1064572/0