SURESH KUMAR WALA Vs. STATE OF UTTARANCHAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In the instant case, the criminal law was set into motion on the complaint of Vasant Kumar s/o Gopi Ram. The complaint (Ext.Ka-1) was addressed to S.O, Police Station Bajpur, District Udham Singh Nagar. According to the complaint, when the informant Vasant Kumar was going to drop his son Piyush Bansal, aged 12 years, to St. Mary's School on his motorcycle on 12.10.2000 at 07:30 a.m., an unnumbered Maruti van hit his motorcycle near sugar mill gate. Informant's motorcycle got disbalanced and fell on the ground. Blue coloured Maruti van was being driven by Suresh Kumar. Karam Singh, Chhota Musalman and Bijendra Jatav were sitting in the Maruti van. All of them caught hold of informant's son Piyush, threw his bag and dragged the victim inside the van. Maruti van ran speedily towards Nandpur-nar-ka-topa. In the mean time, Jai Bhagwan, Raje Kumar Gupta and Tilak Raj Sharma came and (they) tried to stop the van, but to no avail. Chik FIR (Ext.Ka-13) was lodged on 12.10.2000 at 09:30 a.m. The distance between the place of occurrence and P.S. Bajpur was only 11/2 Kms. The FIR thus appears to be delayed. The same was registered as case crime no. 777/2000 under Sections 363 and 364 IPC.

(2.) Investigation began on the basis of said FIR, which culminated in submission of charge-sheet against Suresh Kumar Wala, Karam Singh, Govardhan, Aamir Ahmad, Jassa alias Jaspal and Bijendra Singh for the offence punishable under Section 364-A IPC. When the prosecution opened it's case, charge for the offence punishable under the same Section was framed against the accused persons, to which they pleaded not guilty and claimed trial. Six witnesses, namely, PW1 Vasant Kumar, PW2 Jai Bhagwan, PW3 Piyush Bansal, PW4 SI Rakesh Chandra Thapaliyal, PW5 Dr. K. Chandra and PW6 Head Constable Rishipal Singh were examined on behalf of the prosecution. Statements of the accused persons were taken under Section 313 Cr.P.C., in which they said that they did not kidnap Piyush Bansal and also said that they were roped in a false case. Accused Aamir Ahmad alias Chhota absconded during the trial and therefore his file was separated from the file of the rest of the accused persons by the learned court below. No evidence was adduced in defence. After considering the evidence on record, learned court below convicted Suresh Kumar Wala, Karam Singh, Govardhan, Jassa alias Jaspal and Bijendra Singh of the offence punishable under Section 364 IPC and were sentenced appropriately. Aggrieved against the said order, present Criminal Appeal was preferred.

(3.) PW1 Vasant Kumar, in his examination-in-chief, not only proved his complaint (Ext.Ka-1), but also proved the prosecution story. He said that he was a resident of Shastri Nagar, Bajpur. Piyush Bansal was his son, who was studying in St. Mary's School, Bajpur. Piyush was aged 12 years at the time of incident. PW1 used to drop his son to school everyday. On 12.10.2000, at around 07:00 a.m., when PW1 was going to drop his son on motorcycle and PW1 reached near sugar mill gate at Bajpur, an unnumbered blue coloured Maruti van hit his motorcycle from the back. Motorcycle got disbalanced. The van was being driven by Suresh Kumar. Karam Singh, Jassa, Chhota Musalman alias Aamir Hasan and Bijendra Jatav got down from the van and caught hold of Piyush. They threw his bag and dragged him inside the van and ran away towards Nandpur-nar-ka-topa. In the meantime, witnesses Jai Bhagwan, Rajendra Gupta and Tilak Raj Sharma reached there, who saw the incident and tried to intercept Maruti van. In his cross-examination, PW1 said that he saw the appellants after the van hit the motorcycle. All of them were sitting inside the van. The door of the van was closed, but window panes were opened. The witnesses were at a distance of 5-7 feet from the van. Witness Jai Bhagwan came on scooter. Witness Rajendra Gupta came on motorcycle. They were also carrying their children. The witnesses reached, no sooner Piyush was lifted by the accused persons. PW1 received abrasions. The other children also went to school on their bicycles. It took PW1 5-7 minutes to go to police station. He did not go to the police station immediately, but reached there at 09:30 a.m. PW1 knew the appellants from before the incident. The appellants did not cover their faces. They were unarmed.