Khushi's killers get life term, ugly fight in court

CHANDIGARH: A local court on Friday sentenced two brothers, Sukhdev Singh and Gurvinder Singh, and their servant Nand Kishore to life imprisonment for the kidnapping and gruesome murder of five-year-old boy Khushpreet Singh more than three years ago.
Though the court held the accused had motive and demanded ransom money for release of the boy, it made it clear in its 77-page verdict that the case "does not fall in the category of rarest of rare cases".The court ordered both the brothers to pay Rs 1.50 lakh to Khushpreet's parents out of the Rs 86,000 fine it imposed on each of them. The servant was fined Rs 26,000 only.
"The chain of circumstances proved by the prosecution is so complete as not to leave any reasonable ground for conclusion, consistent with the innocence of the accused and it is shown that in all human probability, the murder of Khushpreet was committed by Sukhdev Singh and Gurvinder Singh and none else," the judgement read.
When the case came up for hearing, the prosecution demanded death for Khushpreet's killers, arguing it fell in the category of rarest-of-rare case. However, the counsel for the accused pleaded that both the accused were young and had not committed any crime earlier, seeking a lenient view while awarding any punishment.
Sukhdev Singh alias Sukha and Gurvinder Singh alias Binder were neighbours of the boy and had kidnapped him from outside his residence in Burail on December 21, 2010, to tide over their financial liabilities. Their servant, Nand Kishore of Launor village in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, had helped them carry out the crime.
Khushpreet had remained in custody of the kidnappers for around 14 days and was killed when the child identified one of them. His body was recovered from a pit in Mohali's Phase X on January 5, 2011.