Judgment

Thomas. J.—A jeweller of Jaipur (Gulshan Makhija) was murdered on his way back home from his jewellery mart. He was abducted by two persons who intercepted the Gypsy (Jeep) driven by him on the night of 23.2.1994 with bags of jewellery kept in the vehicle. The abductors came on a motorcycle and took the jeweller to some distance where he was shot dead. The assailants decamped with a big booty consisting of valuable jewellery. There was one more person in the gypsy – a family friend by name Michael Hens (a German national who had a short sojourn at Jaipur as a tourist). He was jostled out of the gypsy before they abducted the deceased.

2. Five persons were arraigned by the police for the said abduction and murder. But the trial court convicted only two among them for the aforesaid offences (A1 Sharad Dhakar and A2 Manish Dixit), and the other three were acquitted. The High Court confirmed the said conviction only as against A2 Manish Dixit, and the offence against A1 Sharad Dhakar was found to be limited to Section 411 of the Indian Penal Code.

3. More details of the occurrence are these :

Gulshan Makhija’s family was running the jewellery shop called “Star of India” at A