KUKU Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Petitioner/accused, Kuku son of Jai Lal, was charged for the offence punishable under Section 365 IPC for having kidnapped one boy, named Sunny and one girl, named Babbo, aged 5 and 7 years respectively, with the intention to wrongfully and secretly confining them. He was tried for that offence by JMIC, Jalandhar, and was convicted vide judgment dated 20.8.2007 and was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year and to pay a fine of 2,000/- and in default thereof, to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of two months. He preferred an appeal, which was dismissed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Jalandhar, vide judgment dated 6.8.2009. However, the sentence of imprisonment was reduced from one year to nine months.

(2.) The facts, in brief, are that the above named children were of Jaswinder Singh and were students of Government Primary School, Gurdwara Singh Sabha, Adda Hoshiarpur. On 27.7.1999, at about 9 a.m., Amrik Singh-complainant (PW-2) was standing outside his shop when he saw the accused taking those children towards the school. Instead of entering the school, he took them ahead and took a turn towards Tanda Railway Crossing. When the complainant asked from the school children as to whether the accused was an employee of the school, they answered in the negative. He accompanied by Sheela went after the accused and recovered the children from him and at that time the accused tried to impress upon the complainant that they were the children by his brother and that he was taking them to his house situated in Bashirpura. About all these facts, the complainant made his statement Ex. PA before the Satnam Singh, ASI (PW-3), who, after recording his police proceedings Ex. PA/1, sent the same to the police station, on the basis of which FIR Ex. PC was recorded against accused under Section 365 IPC. The accused was arrested by the ASI and the memo of his arrest Ex. PD was prepared. The ASI inspected the place of occurrence and prepared rough site plan with correct marginal notes. Both the children were entrusted to their father Jaswinder Singh vide memo Ex. PB.

(3.) After completion of the investigation, challan was put in before the JMIC. To prove the charge against the accused, the prosecution examined Harbans Kaur (PW-1), Amrik Singh (PW-2), Satnam Singh, ASI (PW-3), Sushil Kumar (PW-4), Jaswinder Singh, HC (PW-5), Jaswinder Singh ASI (PW-6) and Babbu (PW-7).