A sessions court here has convicted and imposed the death penalty on a man for killing an old woman and a two-year-old girl in 2017 by setting them on fire, noting the case falls under the “rarest of rare” category.

Sessions Judge A Subramaniam, in a judgment delivered on November 7, noted the crime committed by the accused, Deepak Jath, undoubtedly falls under the category of “the rarest of rare” cases warranting the death penalty.

The prosecution case is that in April 2017, Jath poured some liquid on four persons — two women, a 17-year-old girl and a two-year-old girl — and set them on fire in suburban Bandra, leading to their death. One of the women and the two-year-old girl died due to burn injuries.

The case is that Jath had earlier harassed the 17-year-old girl and was irked when he was admonished for the same. The court refused to accept Jath’s claim he was not mentally sound.

“I believe that the manner of causing death and pouring inflammable material on the victims, and clod bloodedly lighting them up which included an old helpless lady and a small child of couple of years shows the dastardly act and classifies it as such,” the court said.

“Society abhors such crimes which shock the conscience of the society and always attracts intense and extreme indignation of the community,” it noted.

Jath had, in his defence, claimed he was irked with one of the victims who had used certain derogatory words against him.

The court, however, said, “Can that be said to be provocation or adequate provocation for committing such a ghastly act. I feel the answer lies in the question itself.”

Three members of a family were killed by some unidentified people at their house in Tarn Taran district on Wednesday, the police said.

Valuable items, including cash, gold ornaments and a .315 rifle were stolen from the house which indicated that the murders were committed with the intention of robbery, they said.

The victims have been identified as Iqbal Singh, his wife Lakhwinder Kaur and sister-in-law Sita, police said, adding the bodies were found in separate rooms of the house with their hands tied.

Police said further investigations were underway.

Researchers in Canada have suggested that daily contraceptives could alter women’s brains and make them risk-takers. According to a study published in the journal Frontiers in Endocrinology, researchers from Montreal analysed the effects of oral contraceptives on the brain. Specifically, they investigated the role of naturally and synthetically produced hormones on the way fear is processed. 

“When prescribed [combined oral contraceptives], girls and women are informed of various physical side effects, for example, that the hormones they will be taking will abolish their menstrual cycle and prevent ovulation,” said study author Alexandra Brouillard, a researcher at the University of Quebec in Montreal, in a statement. Yet, the researchers claim that the pill’s effects on the brain’s development have not been thoroughly investigated. 

Therefore, the researchers from Montreal enlisted 139 women, ages 23 to 35, who were using oral contraceptives at the time, who had stopped taking the pill, or who had never used hormonal birth control. They also enlisted 41 men. 

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The team found that compared to men, the women on birth control had a “thinner ventromedial prefrontal cortex,” which is responsible for “emotion regulation, such as decreasing fear signals” in safe situations. Ms Brouillard noted that this thinning could mean an impairment of emotional regulation, which could make them risk-takers. 

However, the researchers also noted that this thinning could be reversed once consumption of the pill stops since the former birth control users did not demonstrate the same results. 

In the study, the team said that further research is still needed to confirm the findings. “The objective of our work is not to counter the use of [combined oral contraceptives], but it is important to be aware that the pill can have an effect on the brain. Our aim is to increase scientific interest in women’s health and raise awareness about early prescription of COCs and brain development, a highly unknown topic,” said Ms Brouillard.