Hoshiarpur, December 21
The District and Sessions Court awarded death penalty to Vikram Singh, Jasvir Singh and his wife Sonia today for kidnapping and brutally killing Abhi Verma,alias Harry, a student of Class 9 of the local DAV Senior Secondary School.
In his order, the District and Sessions Judge, Hoshiarpur, Mr G.K.Rai, stated that Abhi Verma, who was the lone son of Mr Ravi Verma, a jeweller, and resident of Mohalla Premgarh was brutally murdered by the
above said culprits after being kidnapped and no other punishment could be awarded for this heinous crime.
A large number of people of Hoshiarpur, including ladies, started assembling outside the Sessions Court Complex from 10 am onwards where heavy police force was deployed to avert any mishap.
As soon as the culprits were brought in the police van to be produced before the court, they started raising slogans against the killers. They were demanding execution for all the killers.
Meanwhile, Mr Braham Dutta Jimpa, Mr Mohan Lal Pehalwan, Ms Krishna Saini, Ms Sukhwinder Kaur, Ms Kamaljit Kaur, Master Amar Nath and Mr Raj Kumar, all Municipal Councillors, got main bazars, including Railway Road, Dabbi Bazar, Sarafan Bazar, Shish Mehal Bazar, of the city closed to express sympathy with the family of Abhi Verma.
On account of heavy rush before the main gate of the Sessions Court Complex, the vehicular traffic on court road had been diverted.
After the announcement of judgment, people raised slogans supporting the order. Commenting on the judgment Mr Ravi Verma and Ms Savita Verma, parents of Abhi Verma, said justice had been done.
According to the FIR, information about the kidnapping of a
school going boy by some car-borne unknown persons from the Shimla Pahari Chowk near DAV public school, Hoshiarpur, was received on February 14,2005, at about 8:45 am. On this information, an FIR under Section 364 IPC was registered.
Mr Ravi Verma, resident of Mohalla Premgarh, later informed the police that he got a ransom call for Rs 50 lakh for the release of his son, Abhi Verma, who was the student of Class 9 in DAV Public School, Hoshiarpur, and then the police came to the conclusion that it was Abhi Verma who had been kidnapped.
The police then used technical gadgets on telephone to record conversation of the accused with the family member of the kidnapped boy.
