The Himachal Pradesh High Court commuted the death penalty awarded to Chander Sharma (26) and Vikrant Bakshi (22) in the 2014 Yug Gupta murder case, directing that they will serve life imprisonment “till their last breath.”

The Court held that “…it is very difficult for us to proceed on the assumption that the convict had treated Yug with brutality justifying the imposition of extreme penalty of death… The submissions that the accused had thrown the child alive into the tank is not supported by the evidence on record.”

The Court acquitted co-accused, Tejinder Pal Singh (29), of all charges, holding that the offences of kidnapping against Tejinder pal for ransom under Sections 364A and 347 IPC was not proved beyond reasonable doubt.

Division bench of Justice Vivek Singh Thakur and Justice Rakesh Kainthla noted that: “The material on record does not show that the accused cannot be reformed, hence we are unable to confirm the death penalty imposed by the learned Trial Court despite our indignation towards the crime. The same is reduced to life imprisonment, which will mean the natural life of the convicts till their last breath.”

Background:

In 2014, four-year-old Yug Gupta went missing from outside his house in Shimla. After a few days his parents started receiving letters demanding ransom.

According to the investigation, the neighbour of Yug Gupta, accused Chander Sharma, lured him with chocolates and took him to a rented house in the vehicle of Tejinder Pal, who was one of the co-accused. The prosecution submitted that Yug was tortured, forced to drink liquor, and eventually dumped in a municipal water tank a few days later.

His skeletal remains were recovered two years later from a water tank of the Shimla municipal corporation in August 2016. The case sparked outrage with candlelight marches and protests, demanding swift justice.

In 2018, a sessions court convicted all three accused, describing the crime as “rarest of rare,” and sentenced them to death under Sections 302 (murder) and 364A (kidnapping for ransom) of the Indian Penal Code.

Thereafter, the Sessions Court made a death reference to the High Court for confirmation. At the same time, all three accused filed criminal appeals challenging their conviction and sentence.

Case Name: State of H.P. v/s Chander Sharma & Others.

Case No.: DSR No.1 of 2018 with Cr. Appeal No. 387 of 2018

Date of Decision: 23.09.2025

For the Appellant : Mr Jitender Sharma, Additional Advocate General with M/s. J.S. Guleria and Priyanka Chauhan,Deputy Advocates General.

For the Respondents : M/s Sartaj Singh Narula, Arshdeep Singh Cheema and Prince Chauhan Advocates.

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