A court here on Thursday sentenced a man to life imprisonment for abducting his former employee’s 11-year-old son and demanding a ransom of Rs 5 lakh. Additional Sessions Judge A A Joglekar, while pronouncing the punishment, said the court is of the view the proved offence against the accused is certainly a detriment for society.
“It is evident that the gravity of crime should balance the punishment prescribed for such offence, more especially when it concerns the life of a minor,” the court said.The incident took place in February 2016 under VP Road police station limits. The victim’s father had approached police to lodge a missing complaint when his 11-year-old son Kalp Bhansali didn’t return home after visiting a friend in the locality.
While the case was being registered, the victim’s brother got a call from kidnapper Rajendra Ramfakire, who sought Rs 5 lakh for safe release of the child. The police got into action and within four hours of the incident caught the accused, who earlier used to work at the shop of the victim’s father.
The court said the prosecution had successfully established the guilt of the accused, having brought on record that Ramfakire abducted Kalp, kept him in confinement and sought ransom. The reasonable apprehension that the accused might hurt the victim or cause death was well propelled from the conduct of the accused, the court said.
The prosecution has established the charge under section 364-A (kidnapping for ransom) of the Indian Penal Code, it said. Additional public prosecutor Anand Sukhadeve, appearing for police, sought punishment commensurate with the gravity of the case.
Ruling it was not a ‘rarest of rare’ case, the court sentenced Ramfakire to imprisonment for life and also imposed a fine of Rs 5000.
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