New Delhi: A Delhi court has sentenced a man
and his servant to life term for kidnapping his minor nephew
to get a ransom of Rs 20 lakh from his brother for the release
of the child.
Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Kumar awarded the life
term to Madan Gopal and his servant Bahadur and imposed a fine
of Rs 2,000 each after holding them guilty of kidnapping for
ransom and criminal conspiracy under IPC.
During the arguments on sentence, public prosecutor Alka
Goyal sought death penalty for the convicts saying such type
of offences have become a flourishing business and normally
the victims are children of near and dear ones of the
offenders.
The counsel for convicts, on the other hand, sought
leniency on the ground that the kidnapped child was not put to
cruel treatment and even the family members of the victim
seemed to have pardoned the convicts.
The court had convicted Gopal and Bahadur even though
Virender Kumar, the complainant and father of the victim,
turned hostile noting that it was necessary to understand that
here the kidnapper is the real uncle of the child.
"The reasons for turning hostile of all these witnesses
are very obvious. However, if the witnesses turn hostile, that
does not mean that the entire prosecution case should be
thrown away. The duty of the court is to shift the evidence
and glean the grain truth out of the chaff," the court said.
"It appears that at the time of his cross examination, his
brotherly feeling came to fore and then he took a U-turn," the
court added.
It, however noted that 5-year-old Ashish, the kidnapped
child, was rescued from a house in Jamui district of Bihar
where both the accused were present.
"I am of the considered opinion that the prosecution has
proved beyond reasonable doubt that both the accused persons
had conspired together and in pursuit of that conspiracy had
kidnapped the child and had made a ransom call of Rs 20 lakh
from the mobile phone of Gopal on the mobile phone of Virender
Kumar," ASJ Kumar said.
The court relied upon the testimonies of the police
officials who proved that the child was recovered from the
house of accused Bahadur alias Deepak and at that time both
the accused were also present.
It also noted that the mobile phone, which was used for
making calls for ransom, was registered in the name of Gopal
and was found to be in his possession at the time of rescue in
Jamui a few days after the child`s abduction from Kumar`s
Shastri Nagar house here on April 24, 2007.
PTI
