Shimla witnessed protests after the Himachal Pradesh High Court acquitted one accused and commuted two death sentences to life imprisonment in the 2014 Yug Gupta murder case.
Shimla witnessed protests on Thursday after the Himachal Pradesh High Court acquitted one accused and converted the death sentences of two others into life imprisonment in the 2014 Yug Gupta murder case. The decision has left the family of the dead child and local residents deeply dissatisfied.
On Tuesday, the High Court acquitted Tejinder Pal Singh while reducing the death penalty of Chander Sharma and Vikrant Bakshi to life imprisonment. A sessions court had awarded the death penalty to all three in September 2018.
Four-year-old Yug was kidnapped from the Ram Bazar area near Shimla on June 14, 2014. The abductors had demanded a ransom of Rs 3.6 crore, but later murdered the child. In August 2016, municipal employees found his skeletal remains inside a Municipal Corporation water tank in Keleston. The brutal crime had triggered widespread protests at that time.
Protesting against the latest verdict, Yug’s father Vinod Gupta said, “It’s been 11 years, and we are still to get justice. We will file an appeal in the Supreme Court and challenge the decision of the High Court.”
The family, joined by hundreds of residents, held a protest march through the Lower Bazar. Wearing black blindfolds and carrying Yug’s photograph, they expressed their anger at the court ruling. “We are wearing blindfolds to show our resentment. We are denied justice even after strong evidence. I will continue to fight till my last breath,” added Vinod Gupta.
Protesters carried banners reading “Yug Ko Insaaf Dilane ke liye pardarshan. (Protest to get justice for Yug)”
Another local resident reacted sharply, saying, “We don’t understand how this has happened. There were strong evidence and still a person has been acquitted. We are out on the streets for the rights. What faith will we have in the law now?”
Meanwhile, questions resurfaced about whether the discovery of Yug’s remains in a water tank had triggered a jaundice outbreak in Shimla. Tekinder Panwar, former Deputy Mayor of Shimla, dismissed the claims. “It is wrong to interconnect these two things. The spread of jaundice had nothing to do with the skeletal remains of the child in the water tank,” he said.
Panwar explained that the Barhari area, where the water tank was located, recorded no jaundice cases. “Jaundice outbreak was happening in areas of Shimla many years ahead of this incident. In 2015 also the jaundice hit parts of Shimla but the Barhari area where this water tank was had no cases,” he added.
