Chandigarh. The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ordered the release on interim bail of Relu Ram Puniya, his daughter and son-in-law, who are serving a sentence in the murder case of eight people, including a former MLA from Barwala, Hisar, Haryana in 2001.
On Thursday, he has been ordered to be released on bail till the competent authority takes any decision regarding his premature release. These instructions have come on the petitions filed by Sonia and her husband Sanjeev Kumar. He had challenged the Haryana government’s decision to reject his petitions for premature release even though he claimed that he had fulfilled all the necessary conditions.
Sonia and Kumar were convicted for the murder of former Hisar Barwala MLA Relu Ram Punia (50) and seven of his family members while they were sleeping in their farmhouse at Litani village in Hisar district on the night of August 23, 2001.
During the incident, daughter Sonia and son-in-law killed Relu Ram Punia, wife Krishna Devi (41), daughter Priyanka (14), son Sunil Kumar (23), daughter-in-law Shakuntala Devi (20), grandson Lokesh (4), granddaughter Shivani (2) and 45-day-old Preeti. Sonia had conspired with her husband to commit this horror murder over a dispute over property. This case had created a sensation in the entire country.
Punia was elected to the Haryana Assembly from Barwala constituency of Hisar in 1996. Sonia and Kumar were sentenced to death, but in 2014 the Supreme Court commuted their death sentences to life imprisonment. Justice Surya Pratap Singh had reserved his verdict on the couple’s petitions on November 21 and now the verdict was pronounced on December 9.
The family wrote a letter to the President in panic
The family is in panic after Sonia and Sanjeev Kumar, convicted in the Relu Ram Poonia murder case, get bail. Relu Ram’s nephew Jitendra has written a letter in this regard to President Draupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Supreme Court Chief Justice Surya Kant and said that if Sanjeev and Sonia come out of jail, they can be murdered. On Wednesday, Jitendra Punia along with his family members met Advocate Lal Bahadur Khowal in Hisar and discussed the legal aspects of this case.
