Woman gets life for parents’ murder, testimony of her brother, then 5, key

Noida: The testimony of a witness who was five years old when he saw his parents being murdered proved crucial in bringing the perpetrator – his elder sister – to justice.
Additional district and sessions judge Chandra Mohan Srivastava on Tuesday sentenced the woman to life imprisonment for the murder of her parents with the help of her lover in Greater Noida in 2016. Komal and Pramod Kumar Sharma had landed a fatal blow on her father Ved Prakash's head and strangled her mother Uklesh.
Sharma was convicted in 2022, but Komal's trial was delayed as she claimed to have been a juvenile at the time of the crime. Two years ago, the JJB found she was an adult — 18 years old when she committed the crime — and shifted her trial to court, assistant district govt counsel Ratan Singh Bhati said.
A complaint was filed by Komal's uncle Omprakash on Aug 6, 2016, around two days after Komal had called him up from an unknown number and claimed that Sharma had held her family hostage at an unknown location.
Omprakash claimed that on Aug 1, 2016, he saw Sharma and his helper, a minor, taking Komal and her family in a car. Komal had then told him that Ved Prakash was unwell, so Sharma was taking them to a hospital.
Sharma's helper was arrested by a team from Badalpur police station within 24 hours after the FIR was lodged and the threads of the murder began to unravel.
The juvenile told cops that Komal and Sharma had killed Ved Prakash and his wife and disposed of their bodies, but the five-year-old boy was still alive. Cops recovered Ved Prakash's body from a canal in Chauna village on Aug 7, six days after he was murdered. Uklesh's body, found by Rabupura police on Aug 2, was identified by Omprakash on Aug 12. It took cops three more days to trace the boy and arrest Sharma and Komal.
Now 8, the boy testified before the court that his parents did not approve of Komal's relationship with Sharma. "That day (Aug 1), Sharma and his helper visited our house and attacked my father with a blunt object that left him unconscious. They forced us into a car and took us to a deserted location. They dumped my father into a canal and took us to a house in the Chapraula area. There, they left me behind with my sister and took my mother somewhere in the car. My mother was screaming for help and banging on the car's window. I was rescued by cops on Aug 15," he said.
Autopsy reports had affirmed that Ved Prakash died of head injuries while Uklesh was strangled. A chargesheet was filed against Sharma and Komal on Nov 6, 2016, and the charges were framed on Jan 30, 2017.
Komal was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment and fined Rs 20,000 for murder under IPC Section 302 and 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and a Rs 15,000 fine under IPC Section 364 (kidnapping) by the additional district and sessions court. (The ruling mentioned IPC because this was an old case). The sentences are to run concurrently. Maximum statutory punishment under Juvenile Justice Act is three years.