The city court has sentenced two shoopkeeper brothers to five years’ rigorous imprisonment for torturing their 12-year-old employee and his brother with burning cigarette butts on his chest and arms, giving electric shocks and a night-long beating over an allegation of theft in their shop.
Additional sessions judge Pawan Kumar Jain, while sentencing the convicts Shafik and Mohammad Shahab for wrongfully confining and torturing the victims, has also imposed a fined of `25,000 each.
The incident happened on October 17, 2007 when the then 12-year-old boy, employed at the shop of Haji Shujauddin, father of the accused persons, demanded his three months due salary. He had been working at the shop of the convicts for over 10 months at a monthly salary of `500.
The convicts levelled a false allegation of theft of `50,000 against him.
To make him confess the theft, according to the prosecution, Shafik burnt the boy with cigarette butts on his chest and arms, made him stand in a water tub and admistered electric shocks to his knees.
When the boy’s 15-year-old elder brother reached the shop looking for him, he was also taken in and both were beaten up the whole night.
When the terrified boytold them that he kept his savings with one Mansoor, Shafik and Shahab then called Mansoor, who in turn informed the boy’s uncle and the police about the incident.
The medical expert said that the boy had sustained 43 injuries, including grievous ones.
“It has already been established that the victim was just a 12-year-old at the time of the incident whereas another victim was 15 years old. Despite that both the convicts not only confined the victims for the whole night but also tortured them mercilessly”, the court said.
The judge also said that the convicts deserved substantial punishment as “one can only imagine their cruelty. One can also only imagine what kind of trauma the victims must have faced at that time. The convicts must be appearing as monsters to the victims”.