INDIA: DELHI MAN GETS DEATH PENALTY FOR MURDERING 11-YEAR-OLD BOY

October 7, 2020:

A Delhi court on 6 October 2020 awarded death penalty to a 32-year man for killing an 11-year-old child after kidnapping him in 2009, saying the act was “cruel and gruesome and did not deserve leniency”.
The court awarded the punishment to Jeevak Nagpal who was the victim's neighbour in Rohini in the national capital.
For such an act, the convict does not deserve any leniency and the life imprisonment is highly inadequate and there is no alternative but to impose death sentence, Additional Sessions Judge Shivaji Anand said, terming the case "rarest of rare".
According to advocate Prashant Diwan, who appeared for the complainant, the convict had kidnapped the child on 18 March 2009 and sent several messages to his father demanding ransom.
He also threatened that in case the ransom demand was not fulfilled, his son would be killed and his house destroyed.
The convict thereafter murdered the child by causing him injuries with jack handle of his car and by smothering.
After murdering the child, he threw the body in a dry drain.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 60,000 on the convict.
Even after having committing the murder of the child, the convict continued to send ransom messages to the family of the victim, which reflects depravity of his mind at the relevant time, the judge noted.
The convict was 21 years of age at the time of incident.