Shimla, 23 September (IANS) Himachal Pradesh High Court on Tuesday sentenced two to death by a session court, which ended the third of all charges, for the life period to kidnap and kill a four -year -old Yug Gupta with chocolate in 2014.
The state capital saw demonstrations and candle light march after crime.
Even one of the culprits participated in the demonstrations, demanding justice for the child.
A special division bench in Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Rakesh Kanathla ruled that two criminals, Chander Sharma, 26 and 22 -year -old Vikrant Bakshi, would remain in jail till their last breath.
However, it accepted 29 -year -old Tejinder Pal Singh’s appeal, and acquitted him of all allegations.
The case was sent to the High Court to confirm the capital sentence by the Shimla Sessions Judge, while the convicts filed an appeal challenging their conviction.
“The appeal filed by the accused Tejinder Pal Singh is allowed and acquitted of the crimes charged, while the appeal filed by Chander Sharma and Vikrant Bakshi has been partially allowed and is acquitted from the commission of the offense under Sections 347 and 364-A of the adorable for IPC. Until his last breath,” the bench was observed.
On converting the death sentence into life imprisonment, the bench said, “We have analyzed the reports submitted by the state’s circumstances and the behavior of the accused in custody. Until their last breath.”
The boy’s skeleton remains were recovered from a municipal water supply tank in August 2016, two years later he was reported to have disappeared.
The child was tortured, hungry and forced to consume alcohol before throwing the body after tying the body.
The police had accused three youths who were neighbors of the victim along with the murder. He was in police custody since his arrest on August 22, 2016.
On October 25, 2017, a charge sheet filed by the Himachal Pradesh Police’s Crime Investigation Department (CID) said that the child was missing from his residence since 14 June 2014.
The CID said that the accused kept demanding ransom even after killing the child.
On June 27, 2016, the family received a ransom letter demanding Rs 3.6 crore. This was followed by three more ransom letters.
In August 2017 by an angry mob, two accused, Chander Sharma and Tajinder Singh were taken inside the district court premises, when they were taken there for a court hearing.
Regarding the contents of the state lawyer that the convict brutally kills the boy, the High Court noticed, “This submission is not based on the material on the record. The evidence is silent that what transpordated after Yug was found missing.
The Shimla district and the Sessions Judge pronounced the verdict in the judgment of an around 800-hit and declared him the killers in 2018.
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VG/SVN