While pronouncing the verdict, Additional Sessions Judge, Ashok Bhangale, also fined the accused, Manish Dhaka (23) and his brother Rajesh (21) Rs 1,80,000 each.

Vatsal, a student of Maneckji Cooper School at Juhu, was kidnapped and murdered in 1992 by the Dhaka brothers, who had come to Mumbai from Dubai with the express purpose of kidnapping a child for ransom. They had decided to abduct a child from a rich family and commit murder if necessary.

Police inquiries revealed that the Dhakas were scouting around for a rented flat along the seashore in search of an affluent family. In May 1992, they visited Vandana Apartments at Juhu, where the Shahs resided, to take aseventh floor flat on rent. While inspecting the flat, belonging to one Amardeep Patheja, they identified Vatsal as their kidnap vicitm who resided on the second floor. Coincidentally, the Shahs' flat had been raided by the Income-Tax Department the same day.

Patheja agreed to rent his apartment to the brothers and secured an affidavit from them along with their photographs. The photographs later helped ascertain the identity of the accused.

On July 13, the Dhakas executed their kidnap plan. When Vatsal returned from school at around 2.30 pm, the Dhakas accosted him on the building's staircase. His grandmother Sushilaben Shah received a call from one `Bhatia', who later turned out to be Dhaka, who asked her to check the building's staircase. She found Vatsal's schoolbag, which contained a ransom note and photographs of the handcuffed boy. The convicts had demanded Rs 15 crore in diamonds and five kilogrammes of gold. Police investigations revealed that the boy had reached the building and had beenkidnapped on the staircase.

The Dhakas took Vatsal to their seventh-floor flat in the same building, made him unconscious, dumped him in a bag and took him to their ancestral home in Vile Parle. They killed him in a rented flat at Charkop, Kandivli, and placed the body in a sitting position in a space meant for gas cylinders under the kitchen platform. then they built a wall to seal the space.

Investigating Officer, Suhel Buddha, told Express Newsline that the killers kept telephoning the Shahs. Police, after tracing the calls, arrested them on August 10. After their arrest, the brothers confessed to the crime.

The court, in its order today, has directed that 75 per cent of the fine be given to Bhishma, Vatsal's younger brother, as compensation for having had to lose his only brother. Public Prosecutor Shafi Shaikh appeared for the state.