New Delhi:
A Delhi court has sentenced a 32-year-old man to two years rigorous imprisonment for kidnapping a minor in New Delhi, saying that police established his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
Additional Sessions Judge Pawan Kumar Jain handed down the jail term to Rihan, a Delhi resident, while holding him guilty of kidnapping an 8-year-old child in 2010, under section 363 of the IPC.
"I am of the opinion that ends of justice will be met, if convict (Rihan) be sentenced for the period of two years rigorous imprisonment and burdened with some fine," the judge said while also imposing a fine Rs 2,000 on him.
The court, however, acquitted him of the charge of causing hurt by means of poison, with intent to commit an offence under section 328 of the IPC, saying that his medical report could not prove the same.
It did not rely on the victim's testimony that he was given some intoxicating tablets because of which he became semi-conscious.
"This shows that there is every possibility that the child was tutored by someone, otherwise it is not possible for such a tot to recognise the tablets," the court said.
According to the prosecution, on April 3, 2010 a missing complaint was lodged by one Gyas Ahmed that his nephew did not return after he went to play outside his house the previous day.
Later, Ahmed received a call from someone who informed him about his nephew's location. When the search was conducted, the child was found at a nearby mosque, in a semi-conscious state, it said.
The victim deposed that when he was performing Namaaz, Rihan came and asked him to accompany him on the pretext of giving him a kite. When the child refused, he closed his mouth and forcibly took him to a park.
The minor alleged that at night he was made to consume some tablets and was taken to a house by Rihan. On his aunt's request, Rihan dropped the child back at the mosque after his health began to deteriorate.
Charges were framed against him under sections 363 (kidnapping) and 328 (Causing hurt by means of poison, etc., with intent to commit an offence) of the IPC.
Rihan had pleaded innocence and claimed that he was falsely implicated in the case by the child's family members.