PRADEEP PILLAI Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants Rohit Bhatti and Pradeep Pillai, having been convicted in Sessions Case No.5/2008 FIR No.442/98 P.S. Sarai Rohilla on the charges under Section 302, 365 and 201 IPC all read with Section 34 IPC, have preferred the above two appeals against theimpugned judgment dated 12.12.2008 and the consequent order on sentence dated 16.01.2009.

(2.) Briefly stated, case of the prosecution is that appellant Rohit Bhatti was a friend of Manish (deceased). The appellants Pradeep Pillai and Rohit Bhatti entered into a criminal conspiracy with their coaccused persons Arvind S. Lal, Sanjay Dass, Bharat Khilania and Khushi Ram to abduct the deceased Manish with a view to extort handsome ransom from his family. Pursuant to the said conspiracy, appellant Rohit Bhatti called the deceased Manish on telephone at his Printing Press in the afternoon of 08.10.98. Said call was received by Dinesh Kumar Sharma (PW13). On the request of the Rohit Bhatti, Dinesh Kumar Sharma connected him to the deceased Manish and after attending to the call the deceased left the Printing Press in his car No. DL-4CF-3946. It is also the case of the prosecution that a message was also received on the Pager No. 962800437 of the deceased at 01:57 p.m. that Rohit was waiting for him at Liberty Cinema. The deceased reached at Liberty Cinema where appellants Rohit Bhatti and Pradeep Pillai were already waiting for him. They had juice together at the Juice Shop of Satish Kumar (PW8). The appellants Rohit Bhatti and Pradeep Pillai lured the deceased by telling him that their boss had arranged for a nice girl and if he was interested, he could accompany them. On this pretext, they took him to house No. B-150, Sector 8, Pappan Kalan, Delhi. The appellant Pradeep Pillai accompanied the deceased from Liberty Cinema in his car whereas Rohit Bhatti went to Pappan Kalan on his motorcycle. They reached the said house at around 03:15 p.m. where they met the co-accused persons Arvind, Sanjay and Bharat at the gate. They escorted the deceased to a room upstairs where the other co-accused Khushi Ram, Chowkidar was also present. After some time, accused Sanjay and Khushi Ram proceeded to tie the hands of the deceased at his back. The deceased Manish protested and resisted and he even bit both the hands of Bharat. On this, Khushi Ram stabbed Manish on his back with a knife and accused Sanjay strangulated him with a piece of cloth, as a result, Manish died. Thereafter, they brought his dead body downstairs and dumped it into a gutter. Thereafter the appellants Pradeep Pillai and Rohit Bhatti alongwith the others left the spot of occurrence. Subsequently, in the evening of 08.10.98, the appellant Pradeep Pillai again went to Pappan Kalan house alongwith Ajay. They carried a phavra with them. At Pappan Kalan, they dug a pit outside the gate of the house with the phavra and buried the dead body of Manish in the said pit after removing it from the gutter.

(3.) When the deceased did not return home on 08.10.98, complainant Anil Kumar Jain (PW14) visited the police station Sarai Rohilla at 11:35 p.m. and lodged a missing report. In the morning of 09.10.98, when the complainant could not find any trace of his son despite enquiries, he again visited the police station to lodge a formal complaint and his statement (Ex.PW5/A) was recorded by SI Ram Avtar wherein he expressed the suspicion that somebody might have kidnapped and killed his son. On the basis of said information, formal FIR was registered at the police station and investigation was entrusted to SI Ram Avtar (PW25).