The High Court of Karnataka has directed that public prosecutors to secure and submit before the trial court a psychological evaluation of the accused and backgrounds of early and present family members, education, economic conditions, assets, and the possibility of reforms of the accused, in all the cases in which prosecutors seek the imposition of death penalty.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Suraj Govindaraj and Justice G. Basavaraja issued the guidelines while confirming the death penalty imposed on Byluru Thippaiah, a 46-year-old labourer from Kampli in Ballari district, for killing his wife, 34, sister-in-law, 28, and his three minor children — two girls and a boy, all aged below 10.
Three reports
The Bench said the public prosecutor must place these reports before the trial court before the hearing on sentence whenever the public prosecutor seek imposition of death penalty on the accused.
Guidelines for public prosecutors
Report of the Superintendent of Prison on the nature of work done, conduct, and behaviour in jail
Two psychological evaluations — one at a date as close as possible to the commissioning of the offence and another at the time when public prosecutor seeks imposition of death penalty
Report on early family background of the accused, details of siblings, if any, and their relationship with the accused
Details on any proceedings indicating history of violence or neglect against the accused or by the accused
Information about parents of the accused; their opinion as regards the accused, including that of his conduct
Assessment of present family background of the accused, including the surviving family members, relationship that the accused has with such family members
Reports on educational and socio-economic backgrounds containing details of assets and income of the accused
Details about criminal antecedents of the accused, including conviction or acquittal, if any, in any other proceedings and cases pending
Reports on history of any unstable social behaviour or mental or psychological ailments of the accused; and whether the accused can be reformed or rehabilitated
Also, the Bench said these reports should be first submitted before the trial court at the time when the accused is committed to trial and the second such report should be submitted at the time of hearing on sentence. The third report, if the accused is convicted by the trial court imposing the death penalty, needs to be submitted when the appeal is heard and the matter is reserved for judgment.
The Bench confirmed the death penalty, imposed by the trial court in 2019, after securing reports on Thippaiah’s background and physchological assessment.
“There was no extreme mental or physical disturbance or extreme provocation for the appellant [convict] to have committed the offence... The atrocity of the crime resulting in five deaths, including of three children below 10 years of age, and the brutality with which the same has been committed, leaves us no option but to confirm the order of death sentence passed by the trial court, which we do with a heavy heart,” the Bench observed.
Pre-planned murder
The case of the prosecution was that Thippaiah, who suspected the fidelity of his wife and character of his sister-in-law, was of the view that three children were not born to him, and hence killed them by assaulting them multiple times with a chopper at his house in February 2017. The trial court had found that it was a pre-planned murder as he had sent another daughter, whom he believed was born to him, to the house of one of the relatives.
