Gurdev Singh, J. - (1.) THE appellant/accused - Chandan Singh son of Shri Hari Singh @ Teg Singh, has preferred this appeal against the judgment dated 11.12.2002 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Nawanshahr, vide which he convicted the appellant/accused and his co -accused Vinod Kumar for the offence under Section 364 IPC and sentenced them to under rigorous imprisonment for a period of 7 years and to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/ -each and in default thereof to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year.
(2.) THE present appellant/accused, alongwith his wife Manmohan Kaur @ Mohni @ Manjit Kaur and Vinod Kumar, was sent up for trial by the officer in -charge of City Police Station Nawanshahr, for the offences under Section 364 and 120B IPC, in respect of which FIR No. 64 dated 2 13.6.1999 was recorded in that police station. This accused was also sent up to stand his trial for the offence under Section 25 of the Arms Act, 1959 (for brevity -'the Act') in respect of which FIR No. 84 dated 21.7.1999 was recorded in that police station but he was acquitted of that offence, vide the aforesaid judgment. According to the prosecution, Reena Rani, complainant (PW -4) was married to one Vijay Kumar, who was residing in Philippines, and they had one son, named, Lovely Sandhu, who at the time of the occurrence was 10 -12 years old and was a student of second class of Red Rose School, Nawanshahr. On 13.6.1999 at about 6.30 p.m., the complainant took her son to the house of Sunita (PW -9), sister of her husband. Both of them were sitting on the roof of the house, while talking to each other, whereas Lovely Sandhu and Pankaj, son of Sunita, were playing outside the house in the street. In the meanwhile, Chandan Singh and Vinod came to that place on a scooter and kidnapped Lovely Sandhu. The complainant and Sunita raised an alarm but the accused succeeded in taking away the child. The complainant, accompanied by Sunita and Jaswinder Kumar, was proceeding to the police station to lodge the report when Makhan Singh, ASI (PW -11) met her on the way. She made her statement Ex. PB about this occurrence and the ASI, after making his endorsement Ex. PO on the statement, sent the same to the police station and on the basis thereof FIR Ex. PP was recorded by Sukhdev Singh, ASI (PW -2). Makhan Singh, ASI (PW -11) came to the place of occurrence and after inspecting the same, prepared rough site plan Ex. PQ with correct marginal notes and recorded the statements of the witnesses. The police searched for the kidnapped child at different places but failed to trace him. Telephone No. 20479 was installed in the house of the complainant, whereas telephone No. 25025 was installed in the house of Sunita. Provision was made for recording the voice of any person making call on those telephones. On 14.6.1999, a call was received on telephone No. 25025 and the caller demanded a ransom of Rs. 2 lakhs for releasing that kidnapped child. On verification from the telephone exchange, it was found that the said telephone call was made from the PCO of one Manjit Lal, who was joined in the investigation, but no clue was found regarding the person who made the call. The voice of the caller was recorded on the audio cassette, which was taken into possession by way of evidence. On 21.6.1999, another call was received on that telephone number and the caller asked, if the money had been arranged. On verification from the telephone exchange, it was found that the said call has been received from Ropar. Thereafter, the PCOs at Ropar were checked but the police did not find any clue regarding the person who made that call. On 22.6.1999, the kidnappers threw one audio cassette and a letter in front of the house of the complainant and those were produced before the police and were taken into possession. On 11.7.1999, one call was received on the above said telephone and the caller told that the person should come with money at Belongi near Ropar. On the same day, one letter and a part of birthday card were thrown by the kidnappers near the flour mill of village Korakpur, which were taken into possession by the police. The kidnappers continued to make calls on the telephone, asking for the ransom amount. On 21.7.1999, another letter was thrown by the kidnappers at the flour mill of Korakpur in which they mentioned that the money be brought at about 12 noon on the footpath of the canal near Banga road. After receipt of the letter, Jaswinder Singh, SI (PW -6A) joined Vinod Kumar ASI (PW -5), Surinder Mohan (PW -6) and others in the investigation and constituted different parties in order to nab the kidnappers. While this police party was present on the bridge of Kariha, Chandan Singh and Vinod Kumar came there on a scooter. They were stopped and apprehended. When the personal search of Chandan Singh was taken, one portion of the birthday card was recovered and when the same was placed side by side with the portion of the birthday card, which was with the ASI, it was found that these were the two portions of the same card. Thereafter, those were taken into possession, vide memo Ex. PT. On further search of this accused, one country made pistol of 32 Ex. P.1 and four live cartridges Exs. P.2 to P.5 were recovered. In respect of the recovery of these fire arm and ammunition FIR No. 84 was got registered. The scooter on which the accused had come and the registration certificate thereof were taken into possession, vide memo Ex. PE. On interrogation, Chandan Singh suffered a disclosure statement Ex. PAA that he and his co -accused kidnapped the child on 13.6.1999, who was kept by them in a rented house situated in Sarafan Bazar Rahon and could get him recovered from that place. Similar statement was made by Vinod Kumar and in pursuance of those statements, the accused got recovered the child, regarding which memo Ex. PG was prepared. The SI prepared rough site plan Ex. PBB of the place of recovery. Two notes book Exs. PEE and PFF, letter PGG and letter pad Ex. PHH were recovered from the house of Chandan Singh accused and those were taken into possession vide memo Ex. PJJ. On 22.7.1999, Chandan Singh accused was produced before the SDJM, Nawanshahr, and an application was moved for obtaining his specimen signatures and handwriting, which he agreed to give and the SDJM passed order Ex. PUU. Thereafter, his specimen handwriting and signatures Ex. PE were obtained. Those specimen hand writing and signatures alongwith the above said letters as well as two portions of the birthday card Mark A were sent to FSL on 8.7.1999 through Shri Shangara Ram, Constable (PW -19). After examination, it was reported by the Deputy Director of that laboratory, vide his reports Exs. PWW and PXX, that the disputed and specimen hand writing were in the hand writing of the same person and that both the portions of the card were part of one and the same document. In the course of investigation, Manmohan Kaur @ Mohni accused was arrested on 15.10.1999. Necessary sanction under Section 39 of the Act Ex. PA for prosecution of Chandan Singh accused for the offence under Section 25 of the Act was obtained from the District Magistrate, Nawanshahr. After completion of the investigation, two challans were put in before the SDJM, Nawanshar. He committed both those challans to the Court of Session, on the ground that the offence under Section 364 IPC was exclusively triable by that Court.
(3.) ON appearance of the accused, in the Court, mandatory provisions of Section 207 Cr.P.C. were complied with by supplying them with the copies of the documents relied upon by the prosecution and sent alongwith the police report. From the perusal of those documents and after hearing the learned Public Prosecutor and the accused in person, the Additional Sessions Judge found sufficient grounds for presuming that the accused committed offence punishable under Section 364 IPC and in addition to that Chandan Singh committed offence punishable under Section 25 of the Act. They were charged accordingly, to which they pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.;