Shimla court sentences three men to death for abducting, murdering four-year-old boy in 2014

Shimla: A Himachal Pradesh court Wednesday gave death penalty to three people for the murder of a four-year-old boy whose skeletal remains were found in a municipal water tank two years later in 2016.

Shimla Sessions Judge Virender Singh had convicted Chander Sharma, Tajender Singh and Vikrant Bakshi on 6 August for the child’s (named Yug) murder, but deferred the hearing on the quantum of sentence.

Yug’s father Vinod Kumar Gupta, mother Pinki Gupta and grandmother Chandralekha Gupta were present in the jam-packed court as the sentence was pronounced. “My son cannot come back but I am satisfied with the verdict of death penalty for the guilty,” Gupta told PTI. The minor was abducted from the busy Ram Bazar area in Shimla on 14 June, 2014 and killed after seven days, even before a ransom call was made.

His remains were recovered from a Shimla Municipal Corporation water tank in Kelston area on 21 August, 2016, after the probe was handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department. The prosecution said Yug was tortured, starved and forcibly served liquor before being thrown alive into a water tank. “A rock was tied to him when he was thrown into the tank,” it said.

Yug’s killing had sent shockwaves across the city and residents took out processions and candlelight marches to express rage. Gupta had filed a missing person’s complaint at Sadar police station the day his son was abducted.

A criminal case was registered on 16 June, while a letter seeking a ransom of Rs 3.6 crore was received on 27 June. Three more ransom letters were received subsequently.

On January 29, 2016, some municipal corporation employees found his skeleton while cleaning the tank after a jaundice outbreak in the city. Public prosecutor Randip Singh Parmar told PTI that statements of 105 witnesses were recorded in the case.

The death sentence would have to be confirmed by the high court. “The convicts may file appeal against it in the high court within 30 days,” he added.