Delivering the verdict within 40 days of the crime, the court of the district and sessions judge in Uttar Pradesh’s Firozabad district on Friday sentenced a man to death for killing his one-and-a-half-year-old nephew by repeatedly slamming him against the ground after the child’s mother turned down his marriage proposal.
Dr Babbu Sarang, district and sessions judge, Firozabad, sentenced Viraj alias Jitendra, 24, to death and also imposed a penalty of ₹50,000 on him. The judgment came within 40 days of the crime. Firozabad police filed a chargesheet in the case within 6 days and the testimony of 13 witnesses was completed within a week.
Aditya Langeh, senior superintendent of police (SSP), Firozabad, said on May 30, Viraj visited his sister-in-law Rati, a resident of Bamai who had come to meet her relatives in Shikohabad. He allegedly proposed to marry her, which she rejected. Consequently, he killed his nephew Aarav by repeatedly slamming him against the ground.
Rati’s husband Sumit Kumar is Viraj’s cousin. There was some matrimonial dispute between Rati and Sumit. Rati Devi married Sumit Kumar of Badaun in 2024 and the couple had a son Aarav in 2025.
“It is popular phrase that ‘Iron Cuts Iron’. The fear developed in the society can only be removed by by giving severe punishment to the accused. Otherwise society will remain in the fear that such a brutal killing ends with simple punishment. It is clear that the mitigating circumstances are not in any way above the aggravating circumstances. Therefore this is rarest of rare case,” the district and sessions judge said in his order.
{{/usCountry}}“It is popular phrase that ‘Iron Cuts Iron’. The fear developed in the society can only be removed by by giving severe punishment to the accused. Otherwise society will remain in the fear that such a brutal killing ends with simple punishment. It is clear that the mitigating circumstances are not in any way above the aggravating circumstances. Therefore this is rarest of rare case,” the district and sessions judge said in his order.
{{/usCountry}}“The incident not only relates to the murder of innocent child but also creates vacuum in life of mother Rati and also father. The way accused executed the incident, slamming the child on road not once but multiple times and checking if child was dead, is very heinous, gruesome, unprovoked, cold blooded and a brutal murder,” he added.
The accused, a resident of Badaun city, was arrested on the day crime. He had earlier told the police that he wanted to marry his brother’s wife and saw their son as a hurdle to his plans. A video of the gruesome incident, which occurred in a lane in Yadav colony, Shikohabad, went viral as the brutal act was captured on CCTV installed in the area.