Times of India | 1 month ago | 21-02-2023 | 04:38 am
Margao: Nearly 11 years after the crime, the Supreme Court has dismissed appeals of the two accused sentenced to life imprisonment for kidnapping an 11-year-old child from Fatorda for a Rs 20-lakh ransom.On September 19, 2011, the South Goa police rescued the minor boy after intercepting the vehicle in which he was being held hostage at Curti, Ponda.Rupesh alias Uday Falkar from Margao and Duliano alias Vital Fernandes were arrested, and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment by the sessions court. The conviction was upheld by the high court. After hearing the arguments filed by the applicants against their conviction under Section 364 A (kidnapping for ransom) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the court in its judgement expressed its inability to bring the case under Section 363 (kidnapping from lawful guardianship) of the IPC as contended in the appeal. While an offence under Section 364 A attracts death punishment or life imprisonment, that under Section 363 is punishable with imprisonment for up to seven years. Both the accused were employed as drivers by the child’s father.“On the conspectus of the testimony analysed, we are really not able to bring the case under Section 363 of IPC, though we may have some consideration for the age of the appellants and this being a sole incident, it is not really within the domain of this court to go contrary to the legislative domain which prescribes the punishment for such an offence, and we do take note of the fact that the accused being a driver, man of trust for the family, used to be so utilised, breached the trust while kidnapping a child of 11 years of age with special needs,” the court said in its judgement by justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Abhay Oka. The boy was kidnapped by the accused while he was returning home from school, and hours later, his businessman father received a call demanding a ransom of Rs 20 lakh for the safe release of the child. Acting swiftly on the father’s complaint, the South Goa police constituted four special teams in plainclothes and proceeded in private cars carrying along with them the ransom amount to track down the kidnappers. The idea was to secure the safe release of the child after paying the ransom.However, the kidnappers kept calling the father frequently, changing the location where they could be contacted to pay the ransom. However, a police team led by then Margao PI Santosh Dessai intercepted the car near Curti. The police had to fire seven rounds to stop the car and overpower the kidnappers. The boy was rescued without being hurt.While granting the accused four weeks’ time to surrender, the court said that they can seek remission on completion of the minimum sentence as per norms.
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