The child was abducted, tortured, and killed, and his skeletal remains were found two years later in a Shimla Municipal Corporation water tank in August 2016
Yug was abducted from his courtyard in Shimla’s Ram Bazar on June 14, 2014, by neighbour, who lured him with chocolate. Representational pic
The Himachal Pradesh High Court (HC) on Tuesday commuted the death sentences of two convicts to life imprisonment “till their last breath” and acquitted a third in the 2014 murder case of four-year-old Yug Gupta, news agency PTI reported.
The child was abducted, tortured, and killed, and his skeletal remains were found two years later in a Shimla Municipal Corporation water tank in August 2016.
A bench of Justices Vivek Singh Thakur and Rakesh Kainthla observed that “the material on record does not show that the accused cannot be reformed,” and therefore, the death penalty could not be confirmed despite the heinous nature of the crime, reported PTI.
The court added that “to facilitate better evaluation of whether there is a possibility for the accused to be reformed, it is necessary to frame practical guidelines for courts to adopt until a coherent legislative framework is formulated.”
Yug’s father, Vinod, expressed deep anguish following the HC judgment.
“Even after 11 years, justice has been denied. We will file an appeal in the Supreme Court,” he said, recalling that Yug would have been 15 years old today.
Case background
Yug was abducted from his courtyard in Shimla’s Ram Bazar on June 14, 2014, by neighbour Chander Sharma, who lured him with chocolate. He was then taken to Tajender Singh’s godown and later to Sharma’s rented house. The boy was tortured, forced to drink liquor, and kept naked before being dumped in a water tank on June 21, 2014, seven days after the abduction. His clothes were burned to destroy evidence.
A charge sheet was filed in 2018, and the district and sessions court in Shimla, sentenced all Sharma, Singh, and a third person, Vikrant Bakshi, to death on September 5 the same year. The court also pronounced additional jail terms for related offences, including destruction of evidence, wrongful confinement, criminal intimidation, and criminal conspiracy.
On Tuesday, the HC allowed the appeal filed by Singh, acquitting him, and partially allowed appeals by Chander Sharma and Bakshi, reducing their death sentences to life imprisonment. The bench noted that the accused’s behaviour in custody was satisfactory and emphasised the potential for reformation as a guiding principle in sentencing, PTI reported.
The HC had reserved its orders on August 11.
(With PTI inputs)
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