After local court convicted three accused in the Yug kidnapping and murder case on 6 August, the in-camera proceeding in the Yug murder case was held on Monday.

The three convicts Chander Sharma, Tejinder Singh and Vikrant were brought to the district court amidst tight security.

According to Shimla District Attorney R S Parmar the convicts statement were recorded, they have made a plea in the court, seeking a lenient view stating that their parents were old and they were the only son’s of their parents. The case has been fixed for 21 August for hearing on quantum of punishment, he added.

The parents of the convicts have been asked to be present in the court for next proceedings. The four-year old Yug Gupta was kidnapped on 14, June 2014 from outside his house in busy Ram Bazar area. He was allegedly killed seven days after abduction even before the first ransom call was made to his parents.

The accused demanded a ransom of Rs 3.6 crore from the child’s father. The case was handed over to the Crime Investigation Department (CID) after the local police failed to solve the case and on 22 August 2016, the cops announced breakthrough with the arrest of Chander Sharma, Tejinder Singh and Vikrant.

Chander, neighbour of the victim, had lured the child with chocolates and took him to Tejinder’s godwon where he was tortured for seven days.

The child was allegedly kept naked, forced to drink liquor and later dumped alive in a water storage tank with stone tied to his body on 21 June, seven days after he was kidnapped.

The police recovered the minor’s skeletal remains from the water storage tank of Shimla Municipal Corporation in Keleston area on 22 August, 2016, after it was thrown by the corporation employees, presuming it to be remains of an animal on 29 January, 2016.

The three were booked under sections 302, 201, 342, 364 A and 120 B of IPC and were put behind bars. The court on 6 August held all the three guilty, District and Sessions Judge Virender Singh pronounced judgement in the case and convicted all the three in the kidnapping and murder of Yug Gupta.