Patna, Dec. 7: For Sanjiv Kumar Gupta, who is now 38 years old, life has changed but very little from what it was three years ago.

Today, when additional district and sessions judge Ramesh Chandra Singh read out his judgment awarding death sentence to Upender Thakur and Mukesh Mahto, who had “destroyed his life”, Gupta had looked up to the sky maybe to thank God.

Terming the case “rarest of rare”, the court awarded death sentences to Upender, a resident of the Nadwa village on outskirts of Patna, and Mukesh, also from Patna, for the murder of 30-year-old Aarti Gupta and her children — Ashi alias Ritu (3) and Sanchit alias Golu (5).

Upender, one of the accused, had requested the judge to allow for a CBI probe when he was about the read out the quantum of punishment. “First listen to it. The time for a CBI probe is over,” the judge said.

The incident had taken place on August 16, 2010, when Sanjiv, the owner of Nala Road-based Vogue Furniture, had gone to Delhi leaving his wife Arti and his two children at home. While Sanjiv’s shop was located on the ground floor, his family members lived on the third floor of the same building. The two, both working with Sanjiv as carpenter and cashier for almost two-and-a-half years, had closed the shop around 10.40pm on the fateful night, barged into Sanjiv’s as they used to hand over the shop’s keys to Aarti.

They had first stabbed Aarti repeatedly and then slit her throat before going on a looting spree. They noticed her two children and stabbed them multiple times before slitting their throats too before decamping with a lot of cash. The television in the house was put on full volume so that the neighbours could not hear the cries. However, police had acted quite fast and the duo were arrested the same night. The murder weapon was found from Mukesh’s residence.

The police had filed a chargesheet on September 16, 2010, while the court took cognisance on September 20, 2010.