19 March 1999 :

On March 19, in New Delhi, the Supreme Court ordered the death sentence for Dharampal, who was convicted for raping the daughter of his neighbor and while on bail murdered 5 members of the rape victim's family with his brother Nirmal's help in the village of Shahpur Turk, Haryana, in June 1993. Sentencing the two brothers with a death term, the High Court said it was "the rarest of rare case" where the death sentence would be the only proper sentence and commensurate with the gravity of the crime. The convicts petitioned the Apex Court challenging the conviction and the Haryana Government sought confirmation of the extreme penalty. Justice G. B. Pattnaik and Justice M. B. Shah said Dharampal had "totally misutilized" the privilege of bail. It was he who had made the threat and assaulted the rape victim's family members. The Apex Court ordered that Dharampal be "hanged till death." But, the judges commuted the death sentence into a life term for Nirmal.