A Rajasthani man who brutally killed the two-and-a-half-year-old son of his relative by throwing the boy on a railway track in 2008, after he was refused the `50 that he had demanded, was sentenced to double life imprisonment by a sessions court on Monday. On September 25, 2008, Jugunu, an unemployed middle-aged man, went to the Sowcarpet house of Anand Jain, whose aunt was married to his brother Mahendran.
While Anand was not home, Jugunu approached Anand’s wife A Shaila and demanded `50 from her. When Shaila refused to give him the money, Jugunu took Shaila’s only son, Monic, on the pretext of playing with him. He, however, failed to return with the boy. At 10 pm, Jugunu called up one of his relatives and said that he was kidnapping the child and was taking him to New Delhi, where he was planning to murder him.
After a frenetic search, Shaila lodged a complaint with the Elephant Gate police. Later that night, the slain body of the child was recovered from the tracks near the Thirumullaivoyal railway station.
Jugunu fled the city in the meantime. After a massive manhunt, the police finally nabbed him in Mumbai by tracking his cellphone signals.
The prosecution said that Jugunu, in a rage after he was denied the money he demanded, flung the kid on the tracks by holding the boy’s legs.
Rejecting defence claims of the boy’s death being an accident, Principal Sessions Judge M Chockalingam said the murder was clearly established by the evidence produced. Both life sentences would run concurrently.