Shimla, Sept 23: The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on the confirmation of the death penalty awarded to three men convicted in the sensational 2014 kidnapping and murder of four-year-old Yug Gupta from Shimla.
A division bench of Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Rakesh Kainthla heard the death sentence reference along with appeals filed by convicts Chander Sharma alias Kaku, Tejinder Pal Singh alias Lijju, and Vikrant Bakshi, all sentenced to death by a Shimla sessions court.
The gruesome crime had shaken Shimla when Yug went missing from his residence in Dwarkagarh, Ram Bazar, on June 14, 2014.
Despite frantic searches, his family could not trace him. Soon after, ransom letters demanding crores were delivered, escalating from ₹3.6 crore to ₹10 crore, along with threats to harm Yug’s sisters if police were informed.
Investigations later revealed that the accused, who lived in the same building and were close to the family, had kidnapped Yug and kept him confined in a rented flat at Jakhu.
In August 2016, during the probe, skeletal remains were recovered from a water tank at Keleston, with forensic reports confirming they belonged to Yug. DNA tests matched the remains with his parents.
The trial court had found the three guilty of conspiring to kidnap Yug for ransom and later murdering him by throwing him alive into the water tank.
They were convicted under IPC Sections 302 (murder), 364-A (kidnapping for ransom), 347 (wrongful confinement), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy).
While the convicts challenged the verdict as based on “circumstantial evidence full of gaps and suspicion,” the prosecution maintained that the chain of evidence – including ransom letters, call records, DNA tests, and recovery of Yug’s belongings – proved their guilt beyond doubt.
In its final order, the High Court ruled:
“Consequently, the appeal filed by accused Tejinder Pal Singh is allowed and he is acquitted of the charged offences, whereas the appeal filed by Chander Sharma and Vikrant Bakshi are partly allowed and they are acquitted of the commission of offences punishable under Sections 347 and 364A of IPC and the sentence of death imposed upon them by learned Trial Court is ordered to be converted to life imprisonment which will mean the natural life till their last breath.
The death reference received from the learned Trial Court is answered by holding that the accused does not deserve the death sentence in the present case.
Subject to this modification, the rest of the judgment is upheld.”
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