MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court has acquitted five persons and confirmed the life sentence of four in a case pertaining to the kidnapping of two minor daughters of a Madurai businessman for ransom in 2017.
A bench of justices N Anand Venkatesh and KK Ramakrishnan passed the order recently on a batch of appeals filed by all nine persons, who were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by Mahila Court in Madurai in 2022.
According to the prosecution, the two girls, aged 4 and 8, were on their way to school by car on November 16, 2017, when three men, two of whom posed as traffic policemen, intercepted the car. They administered an injection to the driver, which made him unconscious and thereafter kidnapped the girls. Subsequently, they demanded `50 lakh from their father and dropped the girls near their house after collecting the ransom.
Based on a complaint lodged by their father, police registered a case against 10 persons- S Ravindran, who is said to be the mastermind, his wife Kaladevi, R Kannan alias Pitchaikannu, K Maniraj, K Manikandan, Vairamuthu, J Gunasekaran, A Jeevajothi, K Radhakrishnan and Chinnadurai and seized the ransom amount and a car bought by Ravindran from the amount.
All 10 persons were convicted by the trial court in 2022 but one of them, Radhakrishnan, died during the pendency of the appeals.
Hearing the remaining appeals, the judges observed that there is a reason as to why the legislature thought it fit bringing a severe sentence of life imprisonment in a case of kidnapping for ransom. The innocent children were kidnapped and threatened by the accused persons to achieve their objectives. This incident will remain in the subconscious mind of the children throughout their life and it will certainly impact their emotional quotient, the judges added.
After elaborately dealing with the charges against each accused separately, the judges concluded that the prosecution failed to prove the charges against Manikandan, Vairamuthu, Gunasekaran, Kaladevi and Chinnadurai beyond reasonable doubt. Even though there is a high degree of suspicion regarding their involvement, they are entitled for the benefit of doubt, the judges held and acquitted them. However, they confirmed the conviction of Ravindran, Kannan, Maniraj and Jeevajothi.