The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Tuesday commuted the death penalty of two men convicted in the 2014 kidnapping and murder of four-year-old Shimla boy, Yug Gupta, to life imprisonment, while acquitting a third accused of all charges.
A division bench of Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Rakesh Kainthla ruled that convicts Chander Sharma (26) and Vikrant Bakshi (22) would serve life terms “till their last breath,” but found insufficient evidence to uphold the trial court’s award of capital punishment. Tejinder Pal (29) was acquitted.
The bench held that the evidence presented did not justify the “rarest of rare” classification necessary for a death sentence.
“The material on record does not show that the accused cannot be reformed, hence we are unable to confirm the death penalty imposed by the trial court despite our indignation towards the crime,” the judges observed.
The court also pointed out gaps in the prosecution’s case, particularly with respect to the timeline of Yug’s death and the forensic findings. It questioned the reliability of the diatom test, which the prosecution had relied upon to claim that the child was thrown alive into the water tank where his remains were later found.
Yug was abducted on June 14, 2014, from his home in Shimla’s Ram Bazaar. Investigators alleged that he was lured with chocolates by neighbour Chander Sharma, then confined in a godown and later taken in Tejinder’s vehicle to a rented house. According to the prosecution, Yug was tortured, forced to drink liquor, and eventually dumped in a municipal water tank in Kelston on June 21, 2014.
His skeletal remains were recovered two years later, on August 21, 2016, sparking widespread outrage. Candlelight marches and protests in Shimla had demanded swift justice for the gruesome crime.
In 2018, a sessions court convicted all three accused, describing the crime as “rarest of rare,” and sentenced them to death under Sections 302 (murder) and 364A (kidnapping for ransom) of the IPC.
Yug’s father, Vinod Gupta, expressed anguish at the high court’s ruling:
“Even after 11 years, justice has been denied to us. We will file an appeal in the Supreme Court. Had this heinous crime not been committed, Yug would have been 15 years old today.”
He also criticised the acquittal of Tejinder, whose SUV was allegedly used in the kidnapping:
“Yug was kept in Tejinder’s house. His vehicle was used in the crime. Still, he has been acquitted. It’s shocking.”
The Himachal Pradesh government has also decided to move the Supreme Court. Additional Advocate General Jitender Sharma said the state would challenge both the commutation of the death penalty and the acquittal.
The defence maintained that the case rested solely on circumstantial evidence. They argued that imposing the death penalty in such cases violated principles of justice:
“Merely because a young child has died is no reason to impose the extreme penalty of death,” counsel for the accused submitted.
The state and Yug’s family are now preparing to approach the Supreme Court, ensuring that the long legal battle over one of Shimla’s most shocking crimes continues.
