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Ludhiana: 4 yrs on, man gets life term for kidnapping, killing 7-yr-old nephew
Additional sessions judge Dr Rajneesh convicted Swaran Singh, a resident of Lal Quarter, Abdullapur Basti, in the 2022-kidnapping and murder of his nephew, Sehajpreet Singh
Nearly four years after a seven-year-old boy was abducted and murdered, a local court has convicted the child’s uncle and sentenced him to life imprisonment for both kidnapping and murder.
Additional sessions judge Dr Rajneesh convicted Swaran Singh, a resident of Lal Quarter, Abdullapur Basti, in the 2022-kidnapping and murder of his nephew, Sehajpreet Singh.
The court awarded life imprisonment under charges of murder and kidnapping. Both sentences will run concurrently.
The case dates back to August 18, 2022, when Sehajpreet Singh went missing while playing in a street near his home. Following a complaint, Model Town police registered a case under Section 364 of the Indian Penal Code against unidentified persons and launched an investigation.
Three days later, on August 21, 2022, police arrested the child’s paternal uncle, Swaran Singh, and claimed to have cracked the case.
According to the investigation, the accused harboured resentment against the victim’s mother for allegedly misbehaving with him. The accused believed that the victim’s mother often asserted that the family’s ancestral property would eventually pass on to Sehajpreet, the only male child in the two related families.
Police said Swaran allegedly decided to target the child in order to settle scores with the boy’s mother.
On the evening of August 18, 2022, the accused allegedly lured Sehajpreet, who was playing with his tricycle outside the house, by offering him a ride on a motorcycle and telling him they were going to a gurdwara. The police investigation suggested that the child, who was closely attached to his uncle and affectionately called him “Bade Papa,” willingly accompanied him.
During the investigation, police found that the accused first left the child’s tricycle at a local gurdwara before taking him on his motorcycle towards the Ladhowal area. He later travelled towards Gurdwara Katana Sahib near Doraha and stayed there.
According to the prosecution, on the morning of August 19, 2022, the accused took the child to the Sidhwan Canal near Ajnod village and pushed him into the canal, causing his death by drowning.
Following the accused’s disclosure, police recovered the child’s tricycle, the motorcycle allegedly used in the crime, and later recovered Sehajpreet’s body from the canal.
The victim’s father, Jagjeet Singh, works as a three-wheeler driver. The court held the accused guilty after examining the evidence presented during the trial and awarded life imprisonment for both offences.
