HC upholds conviction of 3 for murdering 8-yr-old

The Delhi high court upheld the conviction and life imprisonment awarded to three kidnappers for murdering an eight-year-old child of a small-time metal trader in Rohini in 2004.

The three criminals-Bhajan Singh, Joginder Singh and Ashok had kidnapped the boy when he went out for a cycle ride after coming from school.

Initially, they had demanded a ransom of Rs 25 lakh. But it was reduced to Rs 3.5 lakh when the father of the victim told them that he could not manage more than that amount.

The kidnappers had asked the victim’s father to throw the bag containing the money near the Sonepat railway station in Haryana. However, on the advice of the police team accompanying the victim’s father in the train to Sonepat, he did not toss out the bag as directed by the accused persons. “The police officials were travelling with the victim’s father during the entire journey.   The police were unable to pin down any person involved in the kidnapping during this exercise,” the court observed.

Though a trial court had held the three guilty of murder and other offences and sentenced them to life imprisonment it had later acquitted them off the charges of kidnapping and ransom. The High Court convicted them for these charges as well.

The Call Detail Reports (CDR) proved crucial in the arrest of the accused persons and thereafter, the body of the child was recovered from a drain at their instance.

“The facts and circumstances are conclusive and definite in nature and unerringly point towards the guilt of the appellants, there being no possibility of any hypothesis of their innocence, said the court upholding the conviction and sentence and dismissing their appeals against the trial court judgment.