Ayodhya, A special court in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya has awarded death sentence to the main accused in a case involving the murder of five persons, including three minors.

The court also awarded life imprisonment to the mother, father and wife of the main accused, who were also found involved in the killing.

Additional district judge of Ayodhya, the special judge of EC Act, Amit Pandey, pronounced the judgment on Saturday.

The incident took place in Baria Nisharu village under Inayat Nagar police station area of Ayodhya district on March 21, 2021, in which a man, his wife and three minor children were beaten to death.

The minor children were aged four, seven and 10 years.

The reason behind this massacre was a dispute over one bigha of land in which the main accused Pawan Kumar with the help of his father Ramraj, mother Sheshmata and wife Mamta brutally killed his maternal uncle Rakesh, 36, his wife Jyoti, 32, sons Dhruv, 4, and Shakti, 7, and daughter Anshika, 10.

Pawan used an axe for the killing. He also cut off the hands and legs of the minor children.

The Additional district government counsel, Praveen Kumar Singh told reporters that the police arrested the accused the next day of the incident.

There were 22 witnesses on behalf of the prosecution.