Two men were sentenced to life imprisonment by a sessions court here for kidnapping an eight- year-old child for ransom in 2010.
Additional Sessions Judge K Dhanasekaran found Suresh (22) and Williams Stephen (22) guilty of kidnap for ransom and sentenced them to life imprisonment
He also slapped a fine of Rs 1,000 on each of them.
The Judge concurred with the submissions of Additional Public Prosecutor K Simon who relied on the clear deposition of the child Krish Anand who identified his abductors.
The Judge also concurred with the arguments by the APP to leave alone other witnesses and said the boy's deposition cannot be doubted.
Krish Anand, son of a private logistics firm employee, was a Class III student and used to go to school by van. On October 20, 2010 he was taken away from near his school in the evening. When his parents conducted inquiries, a textile shop- owner told them he had seen the child being put into a car by two men.
The parents later received a ransom call for Rs five lakh for the safe return of the child.
Police tracked the call to Pallikonda in Vellore district. A team intercepted the abductors near a checkpost in that village and the boy was rescued without any injury within a day after his kidnap.
The duo were slapped with only one charge, Section 364A (kidnapping or maiming a minor for purposes of begging) read with Section 3 of IPC.
Yesterday, the defence sought to puncture the prosecution's theory of kidnap. However the arguments of APP K Simon strengthened the case and the duo were sentenced to life.
