HOSHIARPUR: The court has fixed date and execution of the accused in the killing of a 16 year old boy Abhi Verma. District and Sessions Judge GK Dhir ordered execution of Jasvir Singh and Vikram Singh Walia on October 5 at 9 am in the Central Jail Patiala.
The duo had abducted and killed Abhi, son of a local goldsmith for ransom in February 2005. The court also directed the Jail Superintendent to take necessary steps in this regard and prepare a report after executing the death warrants.
On December 21, 2006, the sessions court had sentenced Vikram, Jasvir and Sonia (Jasvir’s wife) to death. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had confirmed the death sentence which was later commuted to life imprisonment but only for Sonia by the Supreme Court in January 2010.
Later, the death-row convicts filed a special leave petition in SC on grounds of Section 364-A (kidnapping for ransom) was unconstitutional, but the plea was dismissed.
Ravi Verma, father of the deceased, had applied in the sessions court for the death warrants of the convicts through his counsel. Verma, though welcomed the order but expressed his dissentment that the court had taken too much time in giving the judgement.
A student of Class 9 in the DAV School, Abhi also known as Harry, was kidnapped on his way to school on February 14, 2005. The abductors had demanded a ransom of Rs 50 lakh, however, the dead body of the boy was found from a village in Jalandhar district.
The boy had died due to overdose of choloroform and fortvin (pentazocine).
The executions, if carried, will break a de-facto moratorium on death penalty as no execution has taken place in India for the past eight years after Dhanajoy CHatterjee was executed on August 14, 2004 in Calcutta.
It may be recalled that Balwant Singh Rajoana, co-accused in former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh’s assassination was to be hanged on March 31, 2012 but the orders were stayed following large scale protests in Punjab against his execution.
Source: Punjab Newsline, Sept. 15, 2012
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