- (1.) S. K. Agarwal, J. The appellant has preferred this appeal against his conviction under Sections 302/201 I. P. C. read with Section 34 I. P. C. and consequent sentence to life imprisonment and three years, R. I. under the abovesaid counts. The judgment of conviction was deliverered by the Sessions Judge, Saharanpur, in S. T. No. 238 of 1980 connected with S. T. No. 391 of 1980.
(2.) P. W. 1 Mani Ram, the first informant, was resident of Mulla Nagrajpur alias Mullapur Kadim at the time of occurrence. He had three children. One was a son, aged about 6 years and the other children were daughters. He was employed as a compounder at a clinic in the city of Saharanpur. He was also running a small clinic at his house in his village. The story of the case revolves round kidnapping and subsequent murder of Raj Kumar, son of the informant. This boy had gone to his school with his sisters on 7-2-1980 in the morning. He returned to his house for taking his lunch curing the noon hours with his sisters. He stayed back at home. The sisters went back to the school. He came out of his house after having taken his food and started playing outside. Thereafter his whereabouts were not know. The search for him by the members of his family yielded no result. Mani Ram was called from Saharanpur. He also participated in the futile search which was made inside the village for the boy. The report of Gumsudgi of this boy Raj Kumar was lodged at P. S. Kotwali Dehat by Mani Ram on 7-2- 1980 At 7. 20 p. m. It was recorded in the General Diary, copy of which is Ext. Ka-80. In the report no suspicion was cast against anyone. The victim was seen by one Ram Dass (P. W. 2) at about 1. 30 p. m. On the date of occurrence, i. e. 7-2-1980 in the company of the appellants, Bhoora and Shakil near the house of the informant. Bhoora was driving bicycle while the other two were pushing him from behind. At the same time P. W. 3 Karam Singh had also seen the appellant and his cousins Shafi and Salim Ahmad sitting near the mend of the field of Shree Ram Pradhan and the deceased boy enjoying the company of Bhoora and Shakil, two acquitted accused, at some distance near the canal. On 7-2-1980 these two witnesses conveyed this information to P. W. 7 Ram Chandra, brother of informant Mani Ram (P. W. 1 ). Thereafter on 8- 2-1980 around 6. 30 a. m. informant found a letter (Ext. 1) placed at the window of his village clinic. This letter made a demand of Rs. 30,000/- for the release of his son Raj Kumar. The informant made no revelation of this letter to anyone. On 10-2-1980 this witness claimed that an old man had delivered another letter (Ext. 2) to P. W. 9 Yaseen, who is running a tea shop in Deola for being handed over to him. Yaseen passed on this letter to another witness P. W. 8 Vijai Singh, who in his turn handed over the same to the informant Mani Ram on the same day at about 3. 45 p. m. Mani Ram claimed that he had written a reply (Ext. Ka 3) wherein he had asked the accused persons to release his son alive. He had also pleaded his inability to arrange such a large sum. He further wrote in this letter that he will make the payment through a common acquaintance whatever money he could manage in the meantime. Mani Ram claimed to have placed the letter at the appointed place, as directed in that letters. The letter was actually placed near the culvert. He waited for about 4 hours from 8. 00 p. m. to midnight on that day nearby that culvert, but according to him none turned to pickup his letter. He again visited that place on 11-2-1980 in the morning. He found yet another letter (Ext. 3 ) placed over there. The command of ransom was repeated in this letter against and an additional sum of Rs. 100/- was also demanded. This letter shows that the time limit for payment of ransom was fixed to be 7. 30 p. m. on Monday. Informant Mani Ram had not disclosed anything either to the police or to any one amongst his associates, friends or family members about these letters. These letters were handed ever by him to the police on 13-2-1980 after discovery of the deadbody of his son on 12-2-1980. On 12-2-1980 at about 7. 20 a. m. the deadbody was noticed lying in a pit in the sugarcane field of Shree Ram Pradhan by his servant. The information of presence of a young boy's deadbody was conveyed to P. W. 1 Mani Ram and his brother Ram Chand. On digging the pit the deadbody of Raj Kumar was recovered. An injury was noticed behing his neck. An information about the discovery of the deady body was conveyed by Ram Chand to P. S. Kotwali Dehat at about 9. 0 a. m. on 12-2-1980 itself.
(3.) THE inquest wad drawn on the body by the Sub-Inspector and after completing other formalities such as recording the evidence of the witnesses a charge-sheet was submitted by the police for prosecution of live accused persons. THEse accused persons were appellant Kamar, two of his brothers Bhoora and Shakil, Shafi and Salim, who are his cousins being sons of his mother's sister. All the accused persons excepting the appellant Kumar have been acquitted by the trial Court. Accused Kumar and Shafi were arrested by the Investigating Officer around noon hours on 13-2-1980 from the culvert near Chilkana road. Their arrests were effected on an information received from an informer. The interrogation of appellant Kumar resulted into discovery, at his pointing out, of the weapon of assault, knife, Khurpi and blood stained towel (Exts. 5, 6, and 4 respectively) from his own house. Ext. Ka-3, the letter left by Mani Ram at the culvert on 10-2-1980, was also recovered from a box from the house of the appellant.;