2014 Yug Gupta Kidnapping, Murder case: Wearing blindfold, kin protest against HC verdict, demand death for convicts

Wearing black blindfods, Yug’s parents, Vinod Gupta and Pinki Gupta, and grandmother led a march from the CTO point near the offices of Superintendent of Police and Deputy Commissioner, and moving though the lower bazaar area concluded at the CTO point. Hundreds of locals, wearing black armbands, accompanied the family holding placards and banners with Yug’s photos.

Soon after the HC verdict, Vinod Gupta had said they have been denied justice and will soon move Supreme Court. Talking to reporters after the protest march, he said the family had put on blindfolds to denote that the law is blind. He said despite strong evidence, the court acquitted one and converted the death penalty to life term for two.

A relative, Surinder Gupta, said, “We are shattered by the high court verdict. Why was Tejinder Pal Singh acquitted? Why was the death sentence reduced to life imprisonment? My nephew has not got justice even after 11 years. The court said that there are chances of the reformation of the convicts. Is it not a joke?”

He further said, “Recently, students of a prominent school were abducted. The entire government machinery of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana got united to rescue the children. But in our case, because Yug was a son of a common shopkeeper, one of the convicts has been let free and punishment awarded to two stand reduced”.

Meanwhile, heavy police force was deputed to maintain the law and order. Shimla SDM (urban) Oshin Sharma, ASP (Shimla) Navdeep Singh were present at the spot.

Yug was kidnapped from the courtyard of his house in Shimla on June 14, 2014. He was tortured and killed after seven days, even before the first call for ransom of Rs 3.6 crore was made. Investigation revealed that the stones were tied around the boy’s neck and he was thrown alive into a water tank of the Shimla Municipal Corporation in Kelston the tank, from where his skeletal remains were recovered August 21, 2016. Described the heinous crime as “rarest among rare”, a Shimla court on September 5, 2018 had awarded death sentence to the convicts under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 364(a) (kidnapping for murder for ransom); seven years imprisonment under Section 201 for destroying evidence, three years imprisonment under Section 347 for wrongful confinement for extortion and one year imprisonment under sections 506 and 120 B (criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy).

Allowing the appeal by Tejinder Pal the high court acquitted him on September 23. The court, however, partly allowed the appeals filed by Chander Sharma, and Vikrant Bakshi and acquitted them of the commission of offences punishable under Sections 347 and 364A of the IPC.