Letting this convict live will be severe punishment than death, says HC

He had killed his mother, wife & two minor children post demonetisation

The Madras High Court on Monday modified to life the death sentence imposed on a businessman who had murdered his mother, wife and two minor children due to mounting debts after the 2016 demonetisation. The court said, letting him live with the thoughts of his fiendish act will be a far more severe punishment than a death sentence. Justices P.N. Prakash and R. Pongiappan said the convict M. Dhamodharan alias Prakash of Pammal near Chennai was a "coward" who lacked the courage to face the financial crisis he was into and that his life would get extinguished in a jiffy if he was sent to the gallows as ordered by the trial court. On the other hand, "if he is permitted to live, the thoughts of his fiendish act of liquidating his mother, wife and two minor children will haunt him till his last breath, which, in our opinion, is a far more severe punishment, than the death sentence. Hence, we modify the sentence of death penalty into one of life imprisonment," the judges wrote.