SANJAY MISHRA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellants, by way of the above captioned six appeals have questioned the legality of the impugned judgment dated July 06, 1999 passed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge convicting the appellants for having committed offences punishable under Sections 302, 364 -A and 201 IPC read with Section 34 IPC; the act being, having kidnapped Shashi Bhushan Ajmani @Kakku (here -in -after referred to as the ,,deceased) to extort money from the father of the deceased; caused death of the deceased by strangulation and destroyed the evidence by throwing the dead body of the deceased in a canal.

(2.) IN a nutshell, the case set up by the prosecution against the appellants (as emerging from the testimonies of the police officials and other witnesses associated with the investigation of the present case) was that on January 20, 1995 at about 01:55 A.M. HC Shishupal PW -20, on duty at PS Janakpuri received a wireless message from the wireless operator at the Police Control Room informing that a call had been received from telephone No.5552536 installed at the house of the caller being C -2/120, Janakpuri, informing that the son aged 17 -18 years of the caller was missing since about 07:30 PM and that a call had been received at about 10:45 PM demanding ransom to release the son of the caller with information given by the person demanding ransom that Maruti make car bearing No.DL 2CD 6349 was parked near Ludlow Castle School. Said information was entered in the Daily Diary vide DD No.29A, Ex.PW -20/A by HC Shishupal and was marked to SI Parmanand for investigation who immediately proceeded to the house bearing Municipal No.C - 2/120, Janak Puri where he met Krishan Lal Ajmani, the father of the deceased and on enquiries from Krishan Lal Ajmani learnt that in all probability the deceased has been kidnapped from Kirti Nagar area, accordingly, SI Parmanand forwarded the case for investigation to PS Kirti Nagar where duty officer HC Mohan Singh PW -25, recorded DD No.28A, Ex.PW25/A, recording the fact of the deceased being kidnapped. The aforesaid DD entry was marked to SI Ram Saran PW -34, for investigation who accompanied by HC Bhoop Singh and Ct.Shami Kapoor proceeded to the house of the deceased and recorded the statement Ex.PW -1/A of Krishan Lal Ajmani and made an endorsement Ex.PW -34/A thereon at about 04.00 A.M. on January 20, 1995 and got the FIR Ex.PW -25/B registered at PS Kirti Nagar for an offence punishable under Section 364 -A p.

(3.) SOON thereafter the police issued a hue and cry notice wherein it was recorded that the deceased was wearing blue shirt, light green colored jeans, green sweater, puma shoes, a gold chain and a diamond ring at the time when he went missing. On January 30, 1995, S.K. Chaddha, Finger Print Expert, CFSL lifted six chance prints from the car of the deceased i.e. car having No.DL -2CD -6349. The police tapped the phone lines installed at the houses of the deceased and his uncle Vijay Kumar. Number of ransom calls were received at both the telephones but the police did not get any clue about the identity of the kidnapper from the said calls.