The court, yesterday, while awarding the death penalty to

Jha had said that "he be hanged by the neck till he is dead" for taking away the life of 19-year-old Upender as his brutality showed he does not possess "basic humanness". The court had also said that "he is a menace to the society and the manner in which he has engaged himself into senseless serial killings shows that he is beyond reform". The prosecution had said that he used to challenge the police to nab him by sending them letters which threatened that he would send similar gifts (bodies) after every 15 days. The court had convicted Jha for killing the three by relying on circumstantial and forensic evidence, including the views of the handwriting experts establishing the fact that the letters recovered near the bodies were written by him. Jha was arrested in 1998 in connection with a murder case but was acquitted for want of evidence. In December 2007, a Delhi court had acquitted him after the police had failed to file charge sheet against him in another murder case. Jha was involved in 14 criminal cases, including seven murder cases, the court had noted in its earlier order. The Delhi Police had filed separate charge sheets in each of the three cases. The police had said Jha had invited his victims to stay with him and took good care of them. After some time, he would get annoyed with them easily and took offence to their activities, it had said. Jha was caught by the police on May 20, 2007 near Mianwali Nagar here and during interrogation, he had disclosed having killed several people and beheading the bodies and also of throwing their other body parts in various places here, the court had noted in its order. It had also noted that Jha himself had informed the police about the bodies lying in front of Tihar jail.