Aurangabad: A local court on Monday sentenced a man to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 3.5 lakh for kidnapping, murdering and concealing the body of a minor boy in a 2011 case.District and sessions judge Rajeev Ranjan Kumar awarded the sentence to Surendra Mehta, a resident of Gadra village under Risiap police station area. Mehta was convicted on July 10 and remanded to judicial custody after cancellation of his bail bond.Public prosecutor Ajay Kumar said the court awarded life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1 lakh under Section 364 IPC (kidnapping), life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2 lakh under Section 302 IPC (murder), and five years’ rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 50,000 under Section 201 IPC (causing disappearance of evidence). All sentences will run concurrently.According to the prosecution, the victim, Vivek Kumar, was abducted on June 17, 2011, during a wedding in the village. The boy had fallen asleep among wedding guests when he was allegedly kidnapped.An FIR was lodged by the victim’s father, Mahendra Mehta, who accused Surendra Mehta of abducting his son. Nearly three months later, the child’s body was recovered from an irrigation canal. Family members identified him through his shirt, belt and teeth.The prosecution told the court that a long-standing land dispute between the accused and the complainant was the motive behind the crime.
