Woman, lover get death for killing seven in Haryana

A young woman and her boyfriend were Thursday sentenced to death by a court in Haryana for poisoning and strangling seven people of the woman's family in September 2009.

The Rohtak district and sessions court awarded the death sentence to 23-year-old Sonam and her 24-year-old boyfriend Naveen Kumar for killing seven members of her family at Kabulpur village, 20 km from here.

Sonam was 19 years old when the crime took place on the night of Sep 14, 2009.

Another person, Jaivir, who supplied them with intoxicants, was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The victims were Sonam's parents, a teenaged brother, her 70-year-old grandmother and three cousins, all under 12 years.

A police probe revealed that Sonam and Naveen had an affair while studying in a college in Rohtak, 70 km from Delhi.

Since they belonged to the same clan, her family objected to their relationship and asked her to discontinue her studies.

Upset over this, Sonam and her boyfriend planned to eliminate the family. She mixed intoxicants in their food and when the victims fell unconscious, Naveen came and strangulated them to death.

To hoodwink the police, Sonam swallowed two sleeping pills and slept in the bathroom to make it look like she was also a victim of the crime.

However, her confusing answers to police made her a suspect and police were able to crack the case on the fourth day of the crime. Both Sonam and Naveen were arrested.