LUCKNOW, June 25 -- Over 20 years after a Ballia man burnt his wife and four children alive in a gruesome crime over money, the Uttar Pradesh government ruled that the years he spent in prison are not enough to outweigh the savagery of the offence, rejecting his plea for premature release and keeping him behind bars.

In a June 24, 2026 order, the state prison administration department said the governor rejected the mercy petition of Vinod Upadhyay, a life convict lodged in Central Jail, Varanasi, after authorities concluded that the brutality of the crime, in which an entire family was wiped out in a single act of violence, made the case unfit for early release.

The case dates back to May 9, 2006, when Upadhyay, according to the governm...