JUDGMENT :

Chandrashekhar, J.

Kanhaiya Chaudhary @ Sashi Chaudhary, Chandan Kumar Singh, Sonu Kumar Singh and Rupesh Kumar Singh have filed these criminal appeals challenging the judgment of conviction under section 364-A read with section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code passed against them in S.C. No. 44 of 2012.

2. Deoghar (Town) PS Case No.74 of 2011 was lodged on 19th March 2011 against unknown. In his fardbeyan which was recorded at 11:30 AM on 19th March 2011, Surender Singhania gave a statement before the officer-in-charge of Deoghar (Town) PS that last night his father did not come back home from the factory and the next morning, on inquiry, he came to know that Manohar Singh who was working as a guard at the factory called a rickshaw for his father who had left for home around 08:30 PM. He informed the officer-in-charge that a ransom call came at the landline bearing number 222529 at his house and, therefore, he apprehends that his father has been abducted for ransom. In course of the investigation, Chandan Kumar Singh, Sonu Kumar Singh and Rupesh Kumar Singh were arrested on 23rd March 2011 from a rented house of the father of Saroj Singh at village Tiwari Tola, Saharsa and R