Nine persons have been sentenced to life imprisonment by a special court for kidnapping two Tamil Nadu-based businessmen for a ransom of Rs 25 lakh by luring them on the pretext of purchasing yarns at cheaper rates five years ago.
Special CBI Judge Poonam Chaudhry, while awarding the jail term to the nine men, said the punishment must fit the crime as the convicts had conspired and kidnapped the victims for ransom and also extorted the money for their release.
"As prosecution has succeeded in establishing its case beyond reasonable doubt that all the accused in furtherance of the conspiracy had kidnapped the victims for ransom and had extorted ransom from them to secure their release, the punishment must fit the crime.
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"I am of the view that the punishment should be such as it deters other potential offenders," the judge said.
The court held Abdul Munaf Khan, Sanjiv Radi, Yunus Saifi, Rakesh Agarwal, Mohmmad Numan, Grijesh Chandra, Basharat Ali, M Subramani and K Jeervani Babu guilty of offences under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 364A (kidnapping for ransom) and 368 (wrongfully concealing kidnapped person) of the IPC.
According to CBI, the nine men had conspired and kidnapped two Tamil Nadu-based businessmen for a ransom by luring them to Delhi on the pretext of purchase of yarns at cheaper rates.
The accused had demanded Rs 25 lakh for their release through RTGS in a Delhi-based current account, it said.
On getting the information, CBI rescued the businessmen who were abducted by the gang and held in captivity in Delhi since November 25, 2011.
During trial, the accused had claimed innocence and sought leniency in sentence on the ground that they had faced trial for over four years and have to support their families.
