Himachal HC commutes death sentences to life in Shimla Yug murder case; State and family to approach SC

Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], September 23 (ANI): In the high-profile Yug murder case, the Himachal Pradesh High Court on Tuesday commuted the death sentences of two convicts to life imprisonment and acquitted a third, a verdict that has drawn strong objections from both the victim's family and the State government, which plans to challenge the ruling in the Supreme Court.
A special division bench of Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Rakesh Kanthla modified the 2018 district court order that had awarded capital punishment to Chander Sharma, Tejinder Pal and Vikrant Bakshi. While Sharma and Bakshi will now serve life imprisonment, Pal has been acquitted.
Additional Advocate General Jitender Sharma, who represented the State in the High Court, said the government was dissatisfied with the ruling.
"We are not happy with the judgment. We have yet to fully examine the uploaded order, but after reviewing it, we will definitely file an appeal in the Supreme Court. The State will challenge both the commutation of the death sentence and the acquittal of Tejinder Pal," Sharma said.
The case dates back to June 14, 2014, when four-year-old Yug was kidnapped from Ram Bazaar in Shimla for ransom. The abductors demanded Rs 3.5 crore from his father. Two years later, in August 2016, his skeletal remains were recovered from a water tank in Bharaari. Investigations revealed the child had been thrown alive into the tank with stones tied to his body.
The case, investigated by the CID, resulted in the filing of a chargesheet in October 2016. The trial began in February 2017, during which 105 out of 135 witnesses were examined. On September 6, 2018, the district and sessions court sentenced all three accused to death, terming the crime as one of the "rarest of rare."
Reacting to the High Court verdict, Yug's father Vinod Gupta expressed anguish and vowed to continue the legal battle.

"Even after 11 years, Yug has not received justice. The High Court has commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment, which is not acceptable to us. The convicts should have been hanged, but even after so much time, they are still alive. I will approach the Supreme Court and demand capital punishment for them," Gupta said.
The State's prosecution had argued that the evidence on record established the involvement of all three. According to investigators, Chander Sharma kidnapped the boy from the gurdwara and transported him in Gajendra Pal's vehicle, while he and the others, Tejinder Pal and Vikrant Bakshi, remained in constant communication for nearly 48 hours before murdering him.
With both the State and the victim's family vowing to approach the Supreme Court, the decade-old case is set to continue its legal journey. (ANI)