GURUGRAM: A 25-year-old man, who had kidnapped a one-and-a-half-year-old girl around two years ago to settle an old score with her family, has been awarded rigorous life imprisonment and a penalty of Rs 20,000. His mother and wife, who tried to implicate the girl’s father and grandfather in a false rape case, have been sentenced to 7 years of rigorous imprisonment.

Additional sessions judge Rajni Yadav, who convicted Neeraj Sharma for the kidnapping and his mother Shashi and wife Deepa for filing false complaints last Saturday, pronounced the quantum of punishment for the three on Tuesday.

Shashi and his wife Deepa have also been asked to pay a penalty of Rs 15,000 each.

“As a measure of social responsibility and also as a means of discouraging other potential offenders, the sentence should be appropriate,” the court observed while announcing the punishment.

On December 21, 2015, two bike-borne youths kidnapped the infant daughter of Meenakshi Yadav and Jitendra Yadav , residents of Fazilpur village. Meenakshi identified one of the youths as Neeraj, who used to stay in the house of one of their relatives as tenant till a year ago. However, he, along with his family, was evicted from the house. The second accused was identified as Neeraj’s minor brother. The police hunted him down and rescued the girl the same day. His minor bother was also arrested.

Angry, Shashi filed a false rape case against the girl’s father Jitendra and grandfather Mir Singh.

