Eleven persons, including two women, have been sentenced to life imprisonment by a district court here for kidnapping an ashram head for ransom and voluntarily causing hurt.
Additional District Judge Brajendra Mani Tripathi convicted Hira, Shivam, Mukesh, Mahipal, Vinod, Gopal, Prem Singh, Ratan Singh, Mayabai, Vijaya and Shyamveer and awarded them life imprisonment.
He also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on each of them.
Another accused Kalua has been sentenced for two years, while one Shyam Sundar was acquitted, as there was no solid evidence against him, Additional District Government Council Ishwar Chandra Sharma said.
They were sentenced under various sections of the IPC including section 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery), 364A (kidnapping for ransom ) and 506 (criminal intent).
The victim, Govindanand Tirth, the head of Seva Mangalam Ashram in Vrindavan was kidnapped by the accused on January 3, 2012.
“They also looted a sum of Rs eight lakh, gold ornaments weighing 400 gram and silver utensils weighing 9.5 kg,” Sharma said.
Next morning they took him to the forest area of Bhind-Morena in MP and pressurized him to pay Rs 60 lakh for his release.
“A disciple of the head on his advise transferred Rs 60 lakh in the bank account of Govindanand,” the ADGC said, adding they took a cheque of Rs 60 lakh from him and transferred the money in the account of Mayabai in Rajpur.
“The money was then divided amongst the accused,” Sharma said.
Later, the accused released the Ashram head on January 14, 2012 and on the basis of his complaint, an FIR was registered in the matter on January 31, 2012.
( Source – PTI )
