Three years after five-year-old Khushpreet Singh, alias Khushi was killed during a kidnapping bid, a local court on Friday sentenced all the three accused to life imprisonment. Apart from this, the court also slapped a fine of `1.05 lakh on the main accused and a fine of `30,000 on their accomplice.
Khushpreet’s father, lakhvir Singh, who was present in the court, broke down after the announcement of the punishment. He said, “We have been waiting for this day for last three years. After the long trial of three years, the court has done injustice to my son, Khushpreet. “I and my family are totally opposed to the judgement by the court, as we were expecting death sentence for this heinous crime, which could have been easily considered rarest of rare case of cold-blooded murder,” added the father.
Khushpreet Singh, alias Khushi was abducted from an area near his residence located in Burail village on December 2010. Khushi’s father, who owned a shop in Burail, lodged a complaint to the local police about the abduction. The accused demanded a ransom of `4 lakh from Khushi’s family. However, 13 days after the abduction, the dead body of the boy was recovered from a pit at Mohali on January, 2011.
The three accused named Sukhdev Singh, his brother Gurvinder Singh and their labour Nand Kishore were held guilty by the court on April 15, and the quantum of punishment was declared here on Friday. Khushpreet’s mother, Kulwinder Kaur, said, “The murder of Khushpreet should have been awarded death sentence. All my life I will wait for the moment when I can see them hanging, and it will be the happiest moment of my life. I want them to feel the same pain which my son had experienced.”
On the other hand, lakhvir, the father of the deceased, has decided to challenge the decision of the district court and is planning to approach the High Court to award the perpetrators with death sentence.“losing a child is the biggest loss for a mother. I don’t want any parents to ever experience the pain that we have been suffering for last three years. The void that had been created in our life with Khushpreet’s tragic death can never be filled with anything,” said Khushpreet’s mother.