Delhi man sentenced to death for 2009 murder of 11-year-old boy

New Delhi, Oct 6 A Delhi court on Tuesday sentenced a convict to death for kidnapping and brutally murdering an 11-year-old boy in 2009, saying the crime fell under the 'rarest of the rare' category.

The parents of the minor broke down after the order was pronounced in the open court in Rohini.

Additional Sessions Judge Shivaji Anand said: "I am of the considered opinion that the act of the convict was cruel and gruesome while committing the murder of an innocent child, who was hardly 12 years of age. For such an act, the convict does not deserve any leniency and the life imprisonment is highly inadequate. So, there is no alternative but to impose the death sentence."

"Considering the totality of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, I am of the considered opinion that this case falls in the category of rarest of rare cases, which warrants death sentence," the court added.

The court also ordered life imprisonment for kidnapping, seven years for disappearance of evidence and another seven years for criminal intimidation.

Jeevek Nagpal was earlier held guilty under Sections 364 (kidnapping for ransom), 302 (murder), 201 (disappearance of evidence), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.

On March 18, 2009, the minor was kidnapped by his neighbour Jeevek Nagpal, who later sent messages to the boy's father for ransom. Nagpal also threatened that in case the ransom demand was not met, the child would be killed.

Nagpal later murdered the boy by hitting him with a car jack lever and smothering him. He later threw the body into a drain.

The counsel for the complainant, Prashant Diwan, told the court that there was no remorse in the convict as even after murdering the child, he was sending SMSes to the boy's father.

( With inputs from IANS )