A COURT in Pune has sentenced a man to life term for the abduction and murder of the five-year-old son of DRDO scientists in September 2012. A minor detained in connection with the case was tried separately in juvenile court. The deceased, Shubh Rawal, was the son of a scientist couple working for the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).Shubh’s father Bhupender Rawal is a scientist at the DRDO’s Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), while his mother Sukeshini works at the High Energy Material Research Laboratory. According to Chatushrungi police, Shubh was last seen playing at a Ganesh pandal near his house in Ramnagar ARDE quarters around 9 pm on September 23, 2012. Police had later arrested Parvindar Singh, then 19-year-old student of a private hotel management institute, and had detained his 15-year-old friend. Fathers of both the suspects are former defence personnel and, at the time of the incident, were attached to the Defence Security Corps, which looks after the security of these research institutes. Shubh studied in a nursery school in Panchawati. The probe had revealed that the duo had committed the crime for easy money and had got the idea of doing it from a news story on kidnapping for ransom, published in a Hindi newspaper. The court of Additional Sessions Judge J T Utpat convicted Parvinder to life imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs 75,000 on him. He was found guilty of conspiracy, kidnapping and murder. Additional Public Prosecutor Sunil More examined 12 witnesses to prove the crime.
