Yug Murder Case: Death Sentences of Two Convicts Commuted to Life Imprisonment

The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Tuesday commuted the death penalty awarded to two convicts in the 2014 abduction and murder of four-year-old Yug to life imprisonment, while acquitting the third accused of all charges.

Delivering the verdict, a special bench of Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Rakesh Kanthla observed:
“The appeal filed by Tejinder Pal Singh is allowed, and he is acquitted of all charges. The appeals filed by Chander Sharma and Vikrant Bakhshi are partly allowed. They are acquitted under Sections 347 and 364A of the Indian Penal Code, and the death sentence imposed by the trial court is modified to life imprisonment, meaning they shall remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives.”

Court’s Observations

While converting the sentence, the bench stated:
“Having analyzed the circumstances of the case and reports regarding the conduct of the accused in custody, the record does not establish that they are beyond reform. Therefore, despite our deep sense of outrage at the crime, we are unable to uphold the death penalty imposed by the trial court. It is reduced to life imprisonment, which shall extend until their last breath.”

Rejecting the prosecution’s contention that the boy had been brutally murdered, the court noted:
“This argument is not supported by the material on record. The evidence is silent on what transpired after Yug went missing. We have proceeded on the basis of the principle of last seen and other circumstantial evidence. As there is no evidence about the events between Yug’s disappearance and the recovery of his remains in the Keleston tank, it would be difficult for us to presume cruelty so grave as to justify a death sentence.”

The Case

Yug was abducted on June 14, 2014, from the busy Ram Bazaar area in Shimla and murdered on June 21, even before the first ransom demand was made. His father, Vinod Gupta, initially lodged a missing person’s report at the Sadar police station on June 14. A formal FIR was registered two days later, and on June 27, a ransom note demanding ₹3.6 crore was received, followed by three more ransom letters. The case was handed over to the state CID on August 14, 2014.

Investigations revealed that Yug had been tortured, starved, and forced to consume alcohol before being thrown alive into a water tank with a stone tied to him. On January 29, 2016, during the cleaning of the tank following a jaundice outbreak, municipal workers discovered skeletal remains. Mistaking them for animal bones, they discarded them without informing the police.

The Sessions Court in Shimla found Chander, Tejinder, and Vikrant Bakhshi guilty and, in September 2018, sentenced them all to death. As required by law, the death penalty was referred to the High Court for confirmation.

Responding to the reference, the High Court held:
“The accused in the present case do not fall within the category warranting the extreme penalty of death.”