SHIMLA: The kidnapping and murder case of Shimla boy Yug Gupta, who was aged four when he had gone missing on June 14, 2014, reached the Himachal Pradesh assembly on Tuesday.
Following a meeting with Yug’s father, Vinod Gupta, chief minister Virbhadra Singh mentioned the case in the assembly and gave a detailed statement on what transpired before his kidnapping and the police action that followed. Yug’s skeleton was found in a water storage tank of the MC in Kelston, a locality in Shimla, on Monday, two years after he had gone missing. During this time, Yug’s parents had made frantic efforts to trace him and had even approached the high court after the police had not made any headway in the case.
In his statement in the assembly, the CM said the skeleton was being sent for a forensic examination and DNA profiling to confirm that the skeletal remains were that of Yug. The CM’s statemment came after Yug’s father met him in his office on Tuesday. The CM has assured the victim’s father that the accused would be “punished severely”. In the assembly, Virbhadra said the three accused in the case – Shimla residents Chander Sharma, Tejinder Pal Singh and Vikrant Bakshi – had been arrested and investigations were on in the case. “Action will be taken according to the law,” the CM said.
Earlier, Yug’s father and his neighbours had protested outside the Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha to demand the death sentence for the accused in the crime. The CM informed the assembly that a case had been registered at Sadar police station on the day the complaint was submitted. “Though efforts were made by the police, the child could not be traced anywhere in the vicinity and a criminal case was registered on June 16, 2014,” he said.
He said preliminary investigation in the case was carried out by Sadar Shimla police station. On June 27, 2014, a ransom letter demanding Rs 3.6 crore for Yug was mailed to the family, the CM said. He added that the family got three letters more. “The case was transferred to state CID crime branch on August 14, 2014, and the narco analysis test of the domestic help of Vinod Gupta revealed that his neighbour Chander and Kaku could have kidnapped Yug for ransom,” he said.
