IMPORTANT POINTS
Death sentence should be imposed only when life imprisonment is totally inadequate by balancing aggravating and mitigating circumstances.
Main accused in the present case should be treated differently. Sentenced to life imprisonment with restriction on his right to claim remission for a period of 25 years.

JUDGMENT :

Leave granted in SLP (Criminal) No.7902 of 2012.

2. The instant appeals have been filed against the final common judgment and order dated 29.07.2011 of the High Court of Jharkhand at Ranchi in a batch of three appeals (Criminal Appeal No. 669 of 2010, Criminal Appeal No. 905 of 2010 and Criminal Appeal No. 779 of 2010) and Death Reference No. 2 of 2010.

3. By the impugned judgment, the High Court dismissed the aforementioned appeals arising out of the judgment and order of conviction and sentence dated 1.07.2010 and 7.07.2010 of the Additional Sessions Judge, Dhanbad in Sessions Trial No. 88/200. The Sessions Court had convicted the three accused for offences punishable under Sections 364A, 302 and 201/34, IPC for kidnapping for ransom and murder of Sumit Kumar Ojha @ Govind, a 19 year old student, and causing disappearance of evidence (i.e. the body of the deceased).

Vide the judgment of the Sessions Court, the appellant Swapan Kumar Jha @ Sapan Kumar (hereinafter “appellant Swapan Kumar”), was sentenced to death, and the appellant Amarendra Kumar Sharma @ Vicky (hereinafter “appellant Vicky”) and the appellant Rocky Dutta herein (hereinafter “appellant Rocky”) were sentenced to R.I. for life and fine of Rs. 10,000 each (6 months’ R.I. in case of default) for the offences punishable under S. 364A and 302, IPC. All the three accused were further sentenced to 7 years’ rigorous imprisonment and fine of Rs. 10,000 each (6 months’ R.I. in case of default) for the offence punishable under Section 201/34, IPC.

4. Criminal Appeal No. 139697 of 2012 arises out of the order of confirmation of the conviction and sentence of the appellant Swapan Kumar by the High Court in Death Reference No. 2 of 2010 and Crl. Appeal No. 905 of 2010. At the same time, Criminal Appeal No. 1435 of 2012 and Criminal Appeal arising out of SLP (Criminal) 7902/2012 by the convicted accused Vicky and Rocky respectively arise out of the confirmation of their conviction and sentence by the High Court in Crl. Appeal Nos. 905 and 779 of 2010.

5. The case for the prosecution in brief is that on 28.09.2008 at about 4.30 p.m., the deceased Sumit left his home after receiving a phone call, stating that he would be back within half an hour, but did not return. Eventually, a missing person’s report was lodged at the Jharia Police Station on 29.09.2008 by the informant, the deceased’s father. On the morning of 1.10.2008, an unidentified ransom call for Rs. 20 lakhs was received at the landline telephone at the deceased’s house, pursuant to which a written report was lodged at Jharia Police Station under section 364A, IPC. On the basis of call records, two mobile phones were seized and the accused were arrested. Based on the confessional statements of the accused, the deceased’s body was recovered, after which Section 302/201/34, IPC were also added, on 23.10.2008. During the investigation, a white Indica car used by the accused was also seized.

6. According to the prosecution, the appellant Swapan Kumar and the appellant Vicky had initially attempted to kidnap Gautam (PW6), the older brother of the deceased. These brothers were the sons of the appellant Swapan Kumar’s mother’s brother, i.e. the informant. The accused Swapan Kumar & Vicky had travelled to Kolkata, in a hired Indica (driven by the driver Dulal Mahto (PW2)), where Gautam was studying, and invited him to go for a ride with them, on the pretext that they had purchased a new car. But they dropped their plans of kidnapping him once he informed his roommate over SMS that he was in their company. Next, they set sights on the deceased, inducing him to meet up with them. They picked him up in their Indica at Children’s Park, Jharia. They visited a place called Khalsa Hotel for drinking alcohol, where the deceased refused to drink, and the two accused later purchased more liquor and forced him to drink, and took him to the appellant Vicky’s houseat Giridih, where the appellant Rocky also joined them. Here, the de