The killers of local boy Abhi Verma (16) would be hanged at 9 am on October 5 in the Central Jail, Patiala.
The court of district and sessions judge GK Dhir on Thursday fixed the date and time of the execution of Vikram Singh Walia and Jasvir Singh, who had abducted and killed Abhi, a goldsmith's son, for ransom in February 2005.
The court directed the jail superintendent to make necessary preparations and give a report after executing the death warrants. The court added that it should be informed in case the convicts got stay on the execution.
The sessions court had pronounced death penalty for Vikram, Jasvir and the latter's wife Sonia, the third accused in the case, on December 21, 2006. The Punjab and Haryana high court had confirmed the death sentence on May 30, 2008, but the Supreme Court had commuted Sonia's sentence to life imprisonment in January 2010. The death-row convicts had filed a special leave petition in the apex court, stating that death sentence for conviction under Section 364-A (kidnapping for ransom) of the Indian Penal Code was unconstitutional, but after arguments, the court dismissed the plea as withdrawn on May 2, 2012.
The victim's father, Ravi Verma, through his counsel Maninderpal Singh, had applied in the sessions court for death warrants for the convicts under Section 414 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). Maninderpal said the Patiala jail superintendent had informed the court that so far there had been no stay on the execution of the convicts.
{{/usCountry}}The victim's father, Ravi Verma, through his counsel Maninderpal Singh, had applied in the sessions court for death warrants for the convicts under Section 414 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). Maninderpal said the Patiala jail superintendent had informed the court that so far there had been no stay on the execution of the convicts.
{{/usCountry}}Ravi Verma welcomed the order but said the court had taken too much time in delivering the judgment. "It has been almost 32 months since the Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence, but I am happy that my son's killers would be hanged at last," he said.
Abhi, also known as Harry, a student of Class 9 in the local DAV school, was kidnapped when he was going to school on February 14, 2005. The kidnappers had demanded a ransom of Rs 50 lakh. Abhi's body was found from Daulatpur village in Jalandhar district the next day.
The investigation had revealed that the child had died due to overdose of chloroform and fortvin (pentazocine). It emerged that the convicts had kept Abhi captive in a house owned by Jasvir's relatives in Milap Nagar. When the child died, they carried his body in a car to Daulatpur and dumped it in a field.