12 get life sentence for kidnapping man over business dispute

A local court today awarded life imprisonment to 12 persons, including a sitting BJP councillor, in connection with a case of kidnapping of a man over a business dispute in 2002.
Additional Sessions Judge H B Raval convicted the 12 persons and sentenced them to life imprisonment, and also slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh on each convict.
Four others were convicted to six months' imprisonment alongwith a fine of Rs 10,000 each.
Among those convicted is Banubhai Bharwad, the sitting BJP councillor in Nadiad municipality.
The case dates back to 2002, when one of the accused - Sahid Natubhai - hatched a plan to kidnap Usman Vora, with whom he used to jointly run a cold-storage, following a dispute over mismatch of financial account of their business establishment at Nadiad town in Kheda district.

Natubhai conspired with the help of other convicts to kidnap Vora so as to recover Rs 65 lakh from him.

According to police, Natubhai got in touch with one Navdhanbhai Bharwad and asked him to make sure that Vora paid up the money that he owed him. Navdhanbhai then approached Bhanubhai Bharwad to settle the case.
Navdhanbhai, Bhanubhai and others then kidnapped the complainant on July 8, 2002. They locked him up and threatened to kill him.
However, Vora was later released by them.
Bhanubhai was not a BJP councillor at the time of the incident.
Later, the accused were booked under IPC sections 147, 148, 364 (A), 120 (B), 507 (2), 342 and 447.

There were total 18 accused in the case. Two of the accused, including the cold-storage co-owner Sahid Natubhai, died during the course of case hearing.
The court today found the rest 16 guilty, and awarded life sentence to 12 of them and six months' imprisonment to four others.