RAVI DHINGRA Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted in Special Leave Petition (Crl.) No.5296 of 2012. In all other cases, leave has already been granted.

(2.) The present appeals have been filed by five accused whose convictions were confirmed by the impugned judgement of the Punjab and Haryana High Court dtd. 13/2/2008, under Ss. 148, 149 and 364A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 ( 'IPC ', for short). The details of the cases are as under:

(3.) Facts in brief, as per FIR No.64 dtd. 15/2/2000 at Police Station, City Thanesar lodged at the instance of complainant, Dr. H.K. Sobti (PW-20) are that the appellants accused kidnapped Harsh (PW-21), aged 14 years, son of Dr H.K. Sobti and Smt Indra Sobti (PW-5) when he was going to school, at about 8:15 a.m. on the aforesaid date. The Station House Officer had filed the FIR with a remark that a case under Sec. 364/34 of the IPC seems to be made out from the facts. As per the statement of PW-21, he was intimidated by co-accused Ravi Dhingra to ride as a pillion rider on his scooter and upon his refusal, he was forcibly put inside a car. Upon screaming for safety, he was threatened to be killed with a knife and pistol if he cried. They also told him that his affluent father could even pay the ransom of Rs.50.00 lakhs. It emerged in the investigation that PW-21 was kept in House No.772, Sector-13, Kurukshetra. Smt. Kanta Goyal (PW-2) who was a resident of house No. 1653/13 which was near the said school and another student of 9th Standard, namely, Manish (PW4) told them that at 8:15 a.m., two boys with muffled faces had put Harsh in a Maruti car without a number plate and having tinted window glass. Later, on the same day, calls demanding ransom were received, acting on which, PW-20 reached the concerned location with the ransom demanded. While he was waiting for the appellants accused to receive the ransom and release his child, PW-21 Harsh Sobti was released between 04:00 a.m. and 04:30 a.m. on 16/2/2000 and dropped near the house of PW-11 Suraj Bhan Rathee. He made a phone call to his mother, who took him to his house at around 5:30 a.m.