A district court in Mizoram on Monday sentenced a 43-year-old man to lifetime imprisonment apart from initial 20 years rigorous imprisonment in connection with five multiple murder cases committed five years ago.

According to the verdict made by an additional district and session judge of Aizawl judicial district, H.T.C.  Lalrinchhana, the convict Laltlanchhuaha, a resident of Republic Mualveng in Aizawl, has been sentenced under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to undergo lifetime imprisonment (one lifetime each for five cases) for murdering five members of a family in January 2015.

The district court also slapped a fine of Rs. 2 lakh each for five murder cases on the convict, failing which he would undergo additional 10 years lifetime imprisonment (2 years each in the five murder cases).

The judgment said that Laltlanchhuaha would initially undergo 20 years rigorous imprisonment for his offences under section 449 (house-trespass in order to commit offence punishable with death) and 307 (attempt to murder) before the commencement of his lifetime imprisonment.

He will undergo additional 4 years rigorous imprisonment if he fails to pay Rs 4 lakh fine for offences committed under section 449 and 307.

Both the lifetime punishment and rigorous imprisonment are not concurrent but consecutive in nature as life imprisonment will commence once the convict completes 20 years (24 years in case of failing to pay fine) rigorous imprisonment.

The period of detention of the offender which he had already undergone during under investigation and trial shall be set off as enjoined by section 428 of Cr PC, the order said.

Laltlanchhuaha was arrested in 2015 after he slaughtered five people out of a seven-member family, including the family head Sangliansiama(57), residing in Republic Veng neighbourhood in Aizawl.

The heinous incident, which was known to be the first such murder ever happened in the Christian dominated Mizoram, had occurred in the night of January 9, 2015 when Laltlanchhuaha, who was a carpenter and butcher by profession and a resident of the same locality, barged into the house of Sangliansiama.

In a fit of rage, Laltlanchhuaha, who was armed with a knife, stabbed to death five members of the family, including a 5-year-old boy after the head of the family refused to buy a company products, which the convict had sold to supplement his income.

After killing Sangliansiama, the convict went on attacking other members. He grabbed Sangliansiama’s sister Vanlalchhungi (54) as she tried to run, and pulled her back into the house and bolted the door from inside. He stabbed her to death.

The miscreant then entered bedroom and mercilessly killed Sangliansiama’s wife Khualthangi (57), who was the Chief Manager of SBI, Mission Veng Branch.

He did not even spare a five years old boy Isaac Lalrinnunga (5) and a teenager Samuel Lalrinchhana (14), the grandson of Sangliansaiama, who came from a village to study in Aizawl.

Isaac succumbed to his injuries on the way to hospital the same night. He was the adopted son of the deceased father.

Fortunately, Sangliansiama’s nephew (Vanlalchhungi’s son) Lalhriatpuia who was not at home at the time of the incident, was spared. Their housemaid Lalzeipuii was also safe as she locked herself in a bathroom.

The district court declared the case “rarest of rare case” as the accused (convict) had not only stabbed but cut the victims several times before they died.