A FATHER who stabbed his two young sons to death and tried to set them on fire has had his case referred back to the appeal court.
Ashok Kalyanjee pled guilty to murdering his six-year-old son Paul and three-year-old Jay in a car at a beauty spot near Lennoxtown in East Dunbartonshire in May 2008.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to serve a minimum of 21 years by Judge Lord Brailsford, who described the murders as "awful".
The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) has now reviewed the case and concluded a miscarriage of justice may have taken place.
It claims Kalyanjee may have been suffering mental health problems at the time of the crime and his subsequent court appearance.
An SCCRC statement said: "The commission has decided to refer the case to the High Court because the commission believes there may have been a mis-carriage of justice on the basis that it appears he may suffer from a mental dis-order which was undiagnosed at the time of his plea and which might have entitled him to plead that his responsibility was diminished.
"The Commission is also satisfied it is in the interests of justice that the case be referred."
Kalyanjee, a tourism student from India, killed the boys after collecting them from his mother.
He stabbed them several times with a large chef's knife before dousing their bodies and the car in petrol and trying to set it on fire.
The bodies were found in the car in the Campsie Fells after police were notified by a couple who saw Kalyanjee slumped over the wheel of his Mercedes.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article