Rudraksh kidnap, murder case: Mastermind gets death penalty

A court in Kota handed death sentence to Ankur Padia, the mastermind in Rudraksh abduction and murder case, on Monday.

The court gave life imprisonment to Ankur's elder brother, Anoop Padia, four-year imprisonment to co-accused Mahaveer Sharma and two-year jail to another accused Karanjeet Singh.

The mother of the victim Shraddha Handa spoke to reporters after the verdict and said, "I want to thank everyone who supported us, especially the BAR association. We can be at peace now".

Special judge, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocity), Kota, Girish Aggarwal announced the punishment.

On October 9, 2014, Ankur Padia had kidnapped seven-year-old Rudraksh, son of a bank manager, from a park in Talwandi area near his house in Kota City. The abductors had demanded a ransom of ? 2 crore from the boy's parents for his release.

After the boy's parents informed the Kota city police about the abduction, police recovered the victim's body from a canal in Jakhmund in Bundi district the next day.

Police arrested the main accused Ankur Padia and his elder brother, Anoop from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh on October 27, 2014.