HC orders probe into delay in disposing of trial

The Madras High Court today ordered an inquiry by its Registry into undue delay of 11 years in disposal of the trial in a kidnap case due to which the accused escaped from life imprisonment.
A bench, comprising Justice S.Nagamuthu and Justice V Bharathidasan, passed the order while reducing the life sentence awarded to the two persons to five years imprisonment each on appeals by them challenging the recent verdict of IInd Additional Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court, Puducherry.
It set aside the conviction and life sentence imposed on the appellants by the trial court under Section 364A (kidnap for ransom) and convicted them under section IPC 365 (kidnap with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine a person).

Noting that the charges in the case were framed in 2005, the bench expressed concern over the 11 years delay in the trial.
It directed the Registrar General to conduct a thorough inquiry into the matter of not sending the case properties by the Judicial Magistrate I or by the Additional Assistant Sessions Judge, Puducherry, for more than nine years to the trial court. The properties were lost and a search was going on for more than 10 years.
As a compact disc containing the telephonic conversation between the accused and the father of the girl had been lost, they benefited and the prosecution suffered, the bench said.

The matter relates to kidnap of an eight-year old girl in 2002 while coming out of her school in Puducherry.