New
Delhi:
If a kidnapped person is not assaulted or threatened to be killed and treated
well, then the kidnapper cannot be sentenced to life imprisonment under Section
364A of Indian Penal Code, the Supreme Court has said.
A
bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and R Subhash Reddy made the observation while
setting aside the conviction of an auto driver in Telangana who had kidnapped a
minor and demanded a ransom of ? 2 lakh from his father.
The
Supreme Court said that there are three essential ingredients to convict an
accused under Section 364A (kidnapping for ransom) which need to be proved by
prosecution.
It
said the three essential ingredients are - kidnapping or abduction of any
person or keeping him in detention; threatening to cause death or hurt to such
person, or the kidnapper's conduct gives rise to a reasonable apprehension that
victim may be put to death or hurt in order to compel the Government, foreign
State or any Governmental organization or any other person to pay a ransom.
Referring
to the punishment of life or death sentence provided for convictions under
Section 364A, the top court said, “In addition to the first condition either
condition (ii) or (iii) has to be proved, failing which conviction under
Section 364A cannot be sustained.”
The
top court was hearing an appeal filed by Telangana resident Shaik Ahmed
challenging a high court order.
The
high court had dismissed his plea against conviction and sentence of life
imprisonment under section 364 A of the IPC.
Ahmed,
an auto driver had kidnapped a Class 6 student of St Mary's High School on the
pretext of dropping him home.
The
child was rescued by police when the child's father went to pay the ransom.
The
child, who was 13 years old at the time of incident in 2011, and his father had
told the lower court that Ahmed never threatened to kill or harm the boy.
The
top court set aside the conviction under section 364-A of the IPC.
From
the evidence on record regarding kidnapping, it is proved that accused had
kidnapped the victim for ransom, demand of ransom was also proved. Even though
offence under Section 364A has not been proved beyond reasonable doubt but the
offence of kidnapping has been fully established to which effect the learned
Sessions Judge has recorded a categorical finding.
The
offence of kidnapping having been proved, the appellant deserves to be
convicted under Section 363(Punishment for kidnapping). Section 363 provides
for punishment which is imprisonment of either description for a term which may
extend to seven years and shall also be liable to fine, the bench said.
The
top court said that it is satisfied that the appellant deserves to be sentenced
with imprisonment of seven years and also liable to pay fine of ? 5,000.
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