New Delhi, Sep 25 (PTI) A court here sentenced three men to life imprisonment for extorting Rs 2 crore ransom 15 years ago for the release of a businessman’s son.
Additional Sessions Judge Virender Kumar Kharta was hearing the arguments on sentencing against the trio, Gaurav Chauhan, Ankur Singh and Sahi Ram and said that the offence was “heinous” and the trauma of the victim’s family members could be understood.
The court also observed that the poverty of the convicts was not a mitigating factor in the case where the aggravating factors far outweighed the mitigating factors.
The accused were earlier convicted under penal provisions for criminal conspiracy, kidnapping or abduction for ransom and criminal intimidation.
Additional Public Prosecutor Pankaj Ranga sought maximum punishment, saying the accused had abducted Nikunj Mittal on July 27, 2009, and demanded Rs 2 crore ransom from his father Rajiv Mittal, which was eventually paid to them two days later.
In its verdict pronounced on Monday, the court said, “The sentence imposed must establish a right balance between the rights of the convicts and the rights of the victim as well as the purpose of the law. Poverty is not a major mitigating circumstance”.
“The offence committed by the convicts is heinous. The trauma of the victim Nikunj Mittal and his family members can be understood,” the court said. It said that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors, such as the poor economic status of the convicts, but it was not a fit case under the purview of the rarest of the rare doctrine.
It sentenced Chauhan, Singh and Ram to life imprisonment for the offence of entering into a criminal conspiracy to kidnap the victim along with a fine of Rs 5,000 each.
The court also sentenced them to life imprisonment for kidnapping Nikunj along with a fine of Rs 5,000 each.
It awarded them five years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2,000 each for criminally intimidating the victim.
All sentences will run concurrently, said the court.
Saying that while Nikunj required payment of adequate compensation as he suffered mental trauma, inconvenience, hardship, disappointment and frustration, but the convicts did not have the financial capacity to pay the same, the court referred the matter to the Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DLSA) for determination and award of compensation. PTI MNR HIG
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