STATE OF WEST BENGAL Vs. MIRA MOHAMMAD OMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A young businessman of Calcutta was abducted and killed. The kingpin of the abductors and some of his henchmen were later nabbed and were tried for the offences. The trial Court convicted them under Section 364 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, but not for murder, and sentenced them each to rigorous imprisonment for 10 years. A Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court rejected the State appeal against the acquittal for murder and reduced the sentence to a short term imprisonment restricting it to the period which the convicted persons had already undergone. The State of West Bengal as well as the convicted persons filed these appeals against the said decision of the Calcutta High Court, the former mainly challenging the acquittal for murder charge and the latter challenging the very conviction entered against them.

(2.) Narration of material facts of this case, in a brief manner is necessary before considering the contentions raised. The victim of the offence was one Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal ('Mahesh' for short). He was doing some small business at Bow Bazar Area (Calcutta). He was a bachelor aged 29 and he was residing with his sister Anushila Devi (PW-9) in an apartment situated on the Western Street which was re-christened as Banbuk Gali. First accused Mir Mohammad alias Omar and 7th accused Sajid Ali were friends and associates in many activities indulged in at Bow Bazar area and the other accused were all the henchmen of Omar.

(3.) Sajid Ali (7th accused) wanted Mahesh to part with a sum of Rs. 50,000/- almost as a ransom, for allowing him to deal with his business unobstructed. But the deceased did not capitulate to the demand and such refusal led to a dig between the two. It seems Mahesh scored an upper hand in the dig. The above episode happened about 10-12 days before the death of Mahesh.