The Delhi High Court has upheld the conviction and life imprisonment awarded to two men for the abduction and killing of a youth in January 2003 and dumping his body in a ditch in Ghaziabad after burning it.
A Bench of Justices S. Muralidhar and Vinod Goel found accused Vikas Sidhu and Vikas Chaudhary guilty of abducting and murdering the 20-year-old victim.
Third accused released
The Bench, however, released a third accused, Joginder alias Mintu, who was also convicted by a trial court here for the crime. “His precise role in the abduction and killing of the victim has been unable to be spelt out by the prosecution,” the Bench said while acquitting him of the charges.
The case relates to the abduction of the youth for ransom. The victim was the son of a businessman who ran a factory at Mayapuri, while the family resided at Ashok Vihar, Phase-II.
The court relied on the testimony of the victim’s mother, who saw her son leave the house with one of the convicts for a nearby park.
Kidnap for ransom
When the victim did not return home till evening, the parents made a complaint to the police. They started receiving ransom calls later and the callers had been allegedly demanding ₹35 lakh.
The police traced the phone number and subsequently arrested Sidhu from his residence at Ashok Vihar, Phase-I.
He purportedly confessed to his involvement in the crime when interrogated and also disclosed the involvement of his accomplices.
At the instance of the convicts, a police team went to Mahamaya Sports Stadium in Ghaziabad, where the convicts claimed to have dumped the victim’s body. However, when the accused took the police to a nullah in front of the stadium, no body was found.
The team then approached the local police station, where they learned that an unidentified, partially burnt body was found near the said spot.
The body was later identified by the victim’s family members.
