Death penalty to Haryana wrestling coach for killing 6

A court in Rohtak on Friday awarded the death penalty to a 34-year-old former wrestling coach for a grisly murder spree in which he killed six people, including a couple and their three-year-old son, inside a wrestling arena in Rohtak in 2021.

Sukhvinder Singh, the accused, had gone on a premeditated murder spree on February 12, 2021, after he was sacked as a wrestling coach over complaints by a 17-year-old female wrestler and was barred from entering a college gymnasium.

The court handed him the death sentence under sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 201 (removing evidence) of the Indian Penal Code and imposed a penalty of 1.26 lakh on Singh, a resident of Baroda village in Sonepat district. He was also convicted under sections 25, 29 and 27(3) of the Arms Act.

"This case falls in the category of the rarest of rare. In such circumstances, this court has no alternative except to switch over to the death penalty instead of life imprisonment," said additional district and sessions judge Gagan Geet Kaur while pronouncing the judgment. Singh, a certified coach from the National Institute of Sports in Patiala, had shot dead six people his colleague Manoj Malik, Malik's wife Sakshi, their three-year-old son Sartaj, wrestling coaches Satish Kumar, Pradeep Malik and a national-level female wrestler Pooja - in a revenge-fuelled rampage three years ago. Another person.