Delhi Court Awards Death Penalty To Man For Murder Of 11-Year-Old

A Delhi court on Tuesday 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".

"Upon consideration of the facts and circumstances of the present case, I am of the considered opinion that the act of convict was cruel and gruesome while committing the murder of an innocent child, who was hardly 12 years of age," the judge said.

According to advocate Prashant Diwan, who appeared for the complainant, the convict had kidnapped the child on March 18, 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.

Mr Diwan told the court that an innocent child was kidnapped by the convict from the lawful guardianship of his parents, who were his neighbours, and breached their trust. 

"Due to said act of the convict, the family of the victim child had to face trauma as the life of their son was at stake," he said.

The judge observed there was no doubt that the convict was in dominating position as the victim was an innocent child about to be 12 years only and the convict was well bodied boy.

"The victim was therefore, hardly in a position to resist the sinister acts of the convict. Even after having committing the murder of the innocent 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. 

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