HARI SINGH Vs. STATE (NCT OF DELHI)

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By these five appeals, all the appellants challenge the common impugned judgment dtd. 17/7/2019 convicting five of the eight accused persons for offences of kidnapping with murder of one Nikesh Kumar Singh ("deceased") punishable under Ss. 364A/302/201/120B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 ("IPC"). The appellants also challenge the order on sentence dtd. 5/9/2019 whereby all the five appellants Hari Singh, Dinesh Kumar, Usman Khan @ Bunty, Rahul Gupta and Bhanu Pratap @ Pratap Bhan @ Babloo were directed to undergo imprisonment for life along with fine of Rs. 50,000/- each for offence punishable under sec. 302 IPC, the appellants were further directed to undergo imprisonment for life along with fine of Rs. 50,000/- each for offence punishable under sec. 364A IPC and rigorous imprisonment of three years along with fine of Rs.20,000.00 each for offence punishable under sec. 201 IPC, in default whereof to undergo simple imprisonment for one year each.

(2.) In nutshell, the facts of the case as per the prosecution are that the complainant Udai Narayan (PW-12), father of the deceased filed a complaint (Ex.PW-12/A) on 4/10/2010 at about 10.05 a.m. stating that his son Nikesh was missing. He gave the information to SI Kuldeep Singh (PW-15) that his son who was an engineering student at Bhagwan Parshuram Engineering College at Gohana and stayed at the hostel, reached District Centre, Janakpuri at about 8.30 p.m. on 30/9/2010, but did not reach home and his phone no. was switched off, and even after enquiry from his friends and relatives, Nikesh could not be found. Accordingly, FIR no. 256/2010 was registered on the said complaint of PW-12 at PS Vikaspuri (Ex.PW-1/A). On the evening of the same day i.e. 4/10/2010, father of the deceased revealed to SI Kuldeep (PW-15) that he had received a call from mobile no. 8923174470 for ransom of Rs. 10 Lacs for release of his son. Thereafter, as the said mobile phone no. 8923174470 was found to be involved in another FIR No.300/2010 registered at PS Dabri, the investigation in the present case was transferred to Crime Branch, which took over the investigation on 6/10/2010. The complainant struck a deal of Rs. 2.5 Lacs with the kidnappers and on 9/10/2010, the complainant and his brother Shambhu Nath (PW-8) boarded the Garibrath Train from Delhi for Bareilly where he had to hand over the ransom amount of Rs. 2.5 Lacs to the kidnappers for the release of his son. Inps. PC Yadav (PW-26) convinced the complainant to allow him to accompany him and thus, Insp. PC Yadav along with HC Kuldeep accompanied the complainant and boarded the same train but travelled in different coaches. A team of Police Officers comprising of SI Rajinder, ASI Ravinder, HC Vikal etc. were already stated to be present at Bareilly in connection with investigation of the other FIR No. 300/2010 of PS Dabri. On reaching the railway station at Bareilly, the complainant was directed by the caller to proceed to platform no. 6, and as the complainant was not willing to take IO (PW-26) to platform no. 6, so IO alongwith HC Kuldeep came out of the railway station after giving instruction to his team camping there in civil dress. Thereafter, the caller directed the complainant to different places at the railway station and was finally directed to reach Manpur Nagaria, which was at a distance of a few stations, using another train, but the complainant refused. Thereafter, around midnight, the complainant was contacted by the kidnapper to go back to platform no. 6 and keep the money on the polythene kept by them near the engine on the elevated platform. As directed, the complainant kept the money at the platform and thereafter, the complainant saw three boys taking away the money. After sometime, at around 4 a.m., the complainant received a call from the kidnapper that they had received the money, and that his son would reach platform no. 6 at about 6 a.m. As his son did not turn up, the complainant called back the kidnapper who told him that his son might have gone to Delhi. Despite this, the complainant stayed at the railway station till 11/10/2010 after which he returned back to Delhi.

(3.) Thereafter, on 24/10/2010, upon secret information, four accused persons namely Hari Singh, Radhey Shyam, Dinesh and Usman were spotted at the 'IN' gate of ISBT, Anand Vihar and about half an hour later accused Rahul Gupta also joined them. The raiding team then apprehended all the five persons. The complainant identified accused Rahul Gupta as a friend of his son Nikesh and two of the other apprehended persons, Dinesh and Bablu were identified as the persons who collected ransom of Rs. 2.5 Lacs Bareilly Station. Thereafter, these five accused were taken to SOS, Crime Branch where they were arrested and their disclosure statements were recorded. It was disclosed by the accused persons that on 6/10/2010, they had taken the deceased to an agricultural field at Manpur Nagaria, U.P. where the deceased was confined and then was made to speak first with his father (PW-12) and then with Kanchan Kumari (PW-14) who was the complainant of case FIR No. 300/2010 at PS Dabri. Thereafter, they killed Nikesh by strangulating him with a rope and disposed off his dead body by digging up a pit at the same field. After obtaining their police custody, the police team along with all these five accused persons went to Manpur Nagaria on 25/10/2010. On 26/10/2010, they reached the police station Soron, where they were directed to police post Manpur Nagaria. From there, they were accompanied by SI Pritam Singh (PW-10) who made the arrival and departure entry with him to the place where the dead body was buried, Ct. Megh Nath (PW-11), and public witnesses Masicharan (PW-2), Ram Sewak (PW-3) and Kamal Singh (PW-4), also accompanied to the sugarcane field owned by one Deen Dayal where the dead body was buried. At the said sugarcane field, the accused pointed out the place from where the dead body was exhumed, which was photographed and video-graphed by the police. The dead body was identified by the complainant (PW-12). The body was then sent for post mortem. During investigation, names of three other associates i.e. Bhanu Pratap @ Pratap Bhan @ Bablu, Mukesh and Raghubir @ Bhura were also disclosed by the accused persons. Appellant Bhanu Pratap @ Bablu surrendered himself before Tis Hazari Court on 22/2/2011 and thereafter he was arrested but no recovery was effected from him. Other two accused persons Mukesh and Raghubir were arrested on 13th and 18/9/2011 respectively and accused Mukesh got recovered the pant of deceased (seizure memo Ex.PW-26/I) which was correctly identified by the complainant during judicial TIP (Ex.PW-24/A), but no recovery was effected from Raghubir.