IMPORTANT POINT
The offence of kidnapping for ransom with threat to life of the kidnapped person is squarely covered by section 364A, IPC.

JUDGMENT

V.S. Sirpurkar, J. —

This Appeal arises out of the appellate judgment passed by Division Bench of High Court, dismissing the appeal filed by the appellants herein, confirming their conviction for offences under Sections 364-A, 325, 323, 384, 342 and 506 IPC all read with Section 120-B IPC. As many as five accused persons came to be tried by the Sessions Judge, Faridabad for the above mentioned offences and all of them were convicted. They were Accused No. 1 (A-1) Shyam Babu, Accused No. 2 (A-2) Brij Bhushan, Accused No. 3 (A-3) Revti Raman, Accused No. 4 (A-4) Chander Bhan and Accused No. 5 (A-5) Tejpal. Their conviction was upheld by the High Court also. However, before us, only Accused Nos. 1, 3, 4 and 5 have come up by way of an appeal. It is reported that A-2 Brij Bhushan has not challenged his conviction, as well as the appellate order passed by the High Court.

2. Prosecution case was that on 24.9.1997, at about 2.30 in the afternoon, Smt. Bhawna made a statement before S.I. Bishamber Dayal at Ambedkar Chowk, Ballabgarh. It was alleged that she was a house wife and her husband was working at Faridabad. She further stated that she had two children, namely, Swati, a daughter and Anchit, a son. She stated that her son Anchit was 4-= years old and was studying in Nursery Class in D.A.V. School, Ballabgarh. She claimed that he used to go to School by School Bus, Route No. 1 at 7.30 a.m. and used to come back at 1.25 p.m. On that day, as usual, after her son returned by bus, she came to her house and saw two persons in the room behind the door, speaking local language. She had given their description also. She further stated that she had seen one white coloured Maruti Van bearing No. DDD-436, standing outside their house in which two other young men were sitting and they forcibly took away her son, who was still in his school uniform, and when she tried to stop them, they gave fist blows to her and one of them also threatened her with knife and while departing, they also threw a note inside the house demanding Rs.5 lacs as ransom money for the return of the child and also threatened that in case police was informed, they would kill the child. She claimed that her hands and feet were tied with cloth and she was bolted inside the room. She managed to free herself and after opening the door, had informed the police. She stated that occurrence had also been witnessed by her neighbour Raju Solanki and she could identify the culprits. After recording the statement, S.I. Bishamber Dayal sent the same to the police station with his endorsement, on the basis of which a formal FIR was registered in Police Station, City Ballabgarh at 2.40 p.m. The Special Report also reached the Judicial Magistrate, Faridabad on the same day at about 7 p.m. at his residence.

3. On the basis of this, the police sprang into action and started the usual investigation by preparing the site plan and executing a spot panchanama. They found a towel, which was lying on the spot, as also, the ransom note Exh. PD. Bhawna, the mother was got examined by the Doctor. On the next day, the police reached house of Shyam Babu, A-1, where they came to know that the said Maruti Van bearing No. DDD-436 was parked in a place at Nohra of Khichi. The said Van was seized. Thereafter, the S.H.O. S.I. Bishamber Dayal raided the sugar-cane fields of village Ranwari and heard the noise of the weeping of a child from the fields. PW-7 Udham Singh identified the voice and recovered the child. The accused persons were not found there. They had obviously run away. Later, on 30th September 1997, A-2 Brij Bhushan and A-3 Revti Raman were arrested on being produced by PW Raghunath, while A-1 Shyam Babu was produced by one Hukam Singh. By and by, all the accused came to be arrested. On 1.10.1997, S.I. Bishamber Dayal moved an application for identification of these accused, namely, Rewati Raman (A-3), Brij Bhushan (A-2) and Shyam Babu (A-1). However, these accused refused to join the id