RAKESH DEBNATH Vs. STATE OF TRIPURA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Mr. P. K. Biswas, learned Counsel for the Appellant and also heard Mr. D. Sarkar, learned P.P. appearing on behalf of the State of Tripura.

(2.) Convicted under Section 364A, IPC and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for life and also to pay fine of Rs. 1,000/ - in default, to suffer simple imprisonment for 3 (three) months vide judgment and order dated 18-03-2005 passed by the learned Addl. Sessions Judge, West Tripura, Khowal, in Case No. STS 5(WT/K) of 2002, the Appellant has filed the present appeal under Section 374 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

(3.) The prosecution case, in brief, is that on 28-10-2001, one,-Shri Amrit Lal Deb of Village Icharbil under Kalyanpur Police Station, lodged a written FIR with the O.C., i/c of Kalyanpur Police Station, alleging inter alia that on 25-10-2001, in the afternoon, his son Rupak Deb left the house along with the co-villagers namely, namely, Nirmal Das and Rakesh Debnath to witness 'Durgapuja Festival' at Kalyanpur. His son did not return home till night and so he started searching for his missing son. In the course of searching, he learnt from some persons that at around 8.00 p.m. they had seen them proceeding towards Tatabari from Moharcherra. Inspite of thorough searching, the whereabout of his son could not be traced. In the early morning of 27-10-2001, he found an envelope lying on the ground in front of his Thakurgarh'. On opening the envelope, he found a letter dated 24-10-2001 written in Kokbarak language in the letter head of National Liberation Front of Twipra ('NLFT' in short). According to the said letter, his son has been kidnapped and if a sum of Rs. 1 lakh was not paid as ransom, his son would be put to death. As the said letter written in Kokbarak language demanding ransom of Rs. 1 lakh for release of his son appeared to have been written on 24-10-2001 and his son was kidnapped on the following day of 25-10-2001, a reasonable suspfcion arose in the mind of the informant that kidnapping of his son was done in a pre-planned manner and the accused persons namely, Nirmal Das, Rakesh Debnath and others might be involved in the kidnapping of his son. On the basis of the FIR, a crime being Kalyanpur P.S. case No. 44/2001 under Section 364A read with Section 34, IPO was registered and investigation was launched.