Anantapur (Andhra Pradesh):
A sessions court on Tuesday handed death sentence to a man for burning alive a woman and three others last year.
As per the prosecution, the accused Manjunath - a resident of Podaralla village in BKS mandal -- had a relationship with Subbalakshmi, a widow. Subbalakshmi lived with her parents Nagamuni and Kondamma and two children, Sreekanth and Aparna.
The two often quarrelled. On the night of March 11, 2011, Manjunath poured petrol from the ventilator of the roof into the house and set it on fire.
All the members of the family sustained serious burns.
Kondamma died after giving a statement to police, Subbalakshmi and her son died the next morning. Nagamuni died after 10 days, while Aparna, 12, survived. The prosecution lawyer examined 29 witnesses in the case.
Holding that the case fell in 'rarest of rare' category, Judge K V Vijayakumar sentenced Manjunath to death.